.0    ^ 


■> 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  {MT-3) 


1.0 


1.1 


11.25 


lu  Kii   12.2 
St   U£    12.0 


1.4    IIIIII.6 


—    6" 


d 


^ 


^ 


o^ 


Photographic 

Sciences 

Corporalion 


V 


^^x 

^^> 


6^ 


23  WIST  MAIN  SIUCT 

WMSTM.N.Y.  M580 

(716)872-4503 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHIVI/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Tachnical  and  Bibliographic  Notaa/Notat  tachniquaa  at  bibllographiquaa 


Tha  Inatituta  haa  attamptad  to  obtain  tha  baat 
original  copy  availabia  for  filming.  Faaturca  of  thia 
copy  which  may  ba  Mbllographically  unlqua, 
which  may  altar  any  of  tha  imagaa  in  tha 
raproduction,  or  which  may  algnificantiy  changa 
tha  uaual  mathod  of  filming,  ara  chackaid  baiow. 


0 


D 


D 
D 


D 


Coiourad  covara/ 
Couvartura  da  coulaur 


I     I   Covara  damagad/ 


Couvartura  andom^nagAa 

Covara  raatorad  and/or  iaminatad/ 
Couvartura  raataurAa  at/ou  paiiicuite 


I     I   Covar  titia  miaaing/ 


La  titra  da  couvartura  manqua 

Coiourad  maps/ 

Cartas  gAographiquas  an  couiaur 


□   Coiourad  ink  (i.a.  othar  than  biua  or  black)/ 
Encra  da  coulaur  (i.a.  autra  qua  blaua  ou  noira) 

I     I   Coiourad  piatas  and/or  iiiuatrationa/ 


D 


Planchas  at/ou  iiiuatrationa  an  coulaur 

Bound  with  othar  niatariai/ 
RalM  avac  d'autraa  documanta 

Tight  binding  may  cauaa  ahadowa  or  diatortion 
along  intarior  margin/ 

La  raliura  sarrie  paut  cauaar  da  I'ombra  ou  da  la 
diatortion  la  long  da  la  marga  intArlaura 

Blank  laavas  addad  during  rastoration  may 
appaar  within  tha  taxt.  Whanavar  possibia.  thasa 
hava  baan  omittad  from  filming/ 
11  sa  paut  qua  cartainaa  pagas  blanches  aJoutAaa 
lors  J'una  rastauration  apparaissant  dans  la  taxta, 
mais,  loraqua  caia  Atait  poaaibia,  cas  pagas  n'ont 
pas  «t«  filmAas. 

Additional  commants:/ 
Commantairas  suppl6mantalras: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm*  la  maiiiaur  axampiaira 
qu'll  lui  a  4t4  poaaibia  da  aa  procurar.  Laa  dAtaiia 
da  eat  axampiaira  qui  sont  paut-Atra  unlquaa  du 
point  da  vua  bibliographiqua,  qui  pauvant  modifiar 
una  imaga  raprodulta,  ou  qui  pauvant  axigar  una 
modification  dans  la  mAthoda  normala  da  flimaga 
aont  indiquAs  ci-daaaoua. 


n~|   Coiourad  pagas/ 


D 


Pagaa  da  coulaur 

Pagaa  damagad/ 
Pagaa  andommagtas 

Pagas  rastorsd  and/oi 

Pagaa  rastaurAes  at/ou  paliiculAas 

Pagas  discolourad,  stainad  or  foxai 
Pagaa  dtcolortes,  tachattea  ou  piquAaa 

Pagas  datachad/ 
Pagas  dAtachAas 

Showthroughy 
Tranaparanca 

Quality  of  prir 

QualitA  intgaia  d9  I'imprassion 

includas  suppia;  lantary  matarit 
Comprand  du  material  suppMmantaira 

Only  adition  availabia/ 
Saula  Adition  disponibia 


I — I  Pagaa  damagad/ 

I — I  Pagas  rastorsd  and/or  laminated/ 

I — I  Pagas  discoiourad,  stainad  or  foxad/ 

I     I  Pagas  datachad/ 

I      I  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  variaa/ 

I      I  includas  suppia;  lantary  material/ 

pn  Only  adition  available/ 


Pagas  wholly  or  partially  obacurad  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pagas  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuiilet  d'errata,  una  peiure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmAes  A  nouveau  da  fapon  A 
obtanir  la  mellleure  image  possible. 


Tl 
to 


Tl 

P< 

o1 
fil 


0 

bi 
tt 
si 
oi 
fil 
si 

OI 


Tl 

sr 

Tl 
w 

M 
dl 
er 
bi 
ri< 
re 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  da  reduction  indiquA  ci-d»«  ous. 

10X  14X  18X  T^X 


^ 


28X 


»X 


12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


Th«  copy  fllmtd  h«r«  has  b««n  r«produc«d  thanks 
to  ths  gsnoroslty  of: 

Library  Division 

Provineial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 


L'sxsmplsirs  fllmi  fut  roproduit  grics  k  la 
ginArosIti  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
poaalbia  considaring  tha  condition  and  laglbility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacifications. 


Las  imagas  sulvantas  ont  4tA  raproduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattatA  da  raxamplaira  ffilmA.  at  9n 
conformiti  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 


Original  copias  in  printad  papar  covars  ara  f  llmad 
baglnning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  iilustratad  impras- 
sion,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copias  ara  f  ilntad  baglnning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  iilustratad  impras- 
sion,  and  anding  on  tha  last  paga  with  a  printad 
or  iilustratad  imprassion. 


Las  axamplairas  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  ast  imprimte  sont  filmAs  an  commandant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  las  autras  axamplairas 
originaux  sont  filmAs  an  commanpant  par  la 
pramiAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impresslon  ou  d'illustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 


Tha  last  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  — ^  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  ▼  (maaning  "END"), 
whichavar  applias. 


Un  das  symbolas  sulvants  apparaitra  sur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  salon  la 
cas:  la  symbols  — ►  signifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
symbols  V  signifia  "FIN". 


Maps,  piatas.  charts,  ate,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Those  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axposura  ara  filmad 
baglnning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar,  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  framas  as 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrams  iliustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Las  cartas,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
filmto  A  des  taux  da  rMuction  diffArants. 
Lorsqua  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  fiimA  A  partir 
de  Tangle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  drolte, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'imagas  nAcessaire.  Las  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrant  la  mathode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

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»*»•>•».    ««.SS*t.**».'.i,T     t^uiSfctUi*, 


•^     t  i  A-*t^S3 


THE 


KLONDIKE 


The  New  Gold  Fields  of  Alaska  and 
The  Far  North-West. 


I 


^ 


By  CAPT.  JAMES  STEELE 


AUTHOR  OP 


"Frontier  Army  Sketches,"     "Coean  Sketches," 
"Fur,  Feathers  and  Fuzz,"  Etc.,  Etc. 


CHICAGO : 

The  STEEtE  Publishing  Association 
1897. 


^nPHPPPWiiMiVii^ 


COPYRIGHT 

1897 
BY  JAMES  W.  STEELE. 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


m 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   LATER    ARGONAUT.**. 

^  YfOT  uiitil  July  14th,  1897,  was  the  news  re- 
ceived.    There  arrived  at  San  Francisco  an 
ocean  steamer.     She  came  from  the  north, 
'  Ji  \i    and  from  a  region  hitherto  locked  against 
human  interest  by  a  seal  of  ice.    Few  had  ever 
gone  there,  and  of  that  few  some  were  returning  now, 
and  under  circumstances  such  as  attract  public  atten- 
tion when  most  other  attractions   fail.     They  were 
almost  literally  laden  with  gold.     And  from  them  a 
name  was  heard  almost  for  the  first  time.    The  region 
Ipj  they  had  left  is  called  The  Klondike. 
w       They  were  a  strange  company.     No  ship  since 
the  old  Califomian  days  had  unloaded  so  motley  a 
cargo.    It  was  midsummer,  but  they  had  left  the 
Klondike  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.    Their  be- 
longings were  peculiar.     What  baggage  they  carried 
was  tied  up  in  old  blankets  and  pieces  of  canvas  with 
ropes.     Hundreds  of  people  who  did  not  know  them, 
and  had  never  heard  before  of  the  new  land  of  gold, 
suddenly    attracted,  watched    them    as   they   came 
ashore. 


160287 


c 

IN. 


f^tlOINfl 
WAN 


•fITOn 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.  o 

For  most  of  them  were  rich,  and  had  grown  rich 
quickly.  In  every  man's  pocket  there  was  a  bag  of 
virgin  gold.  In  all  this  queer  make-shift  baggage 
there  was  more  of  it.  It  had  been  gathered  in  a 
wilderness  where  none  but  savages,  and  few  of  them, 
had  ever  lived,  and  where  there  will  never  be  a  farm, 
a  factory,  a  college.  How  much  wealth  they  carried 
ashore  that  day  will  never  be  precisely  known,  and 
already  they  are  scattered  and  have  been  individually 
forgotten. 

When  they  went  away  they  went  singly  or  in  small 
companies,  and  had  nothing,  and  only  vaguely  knew 
themselves  whither  they  were  going,  or  why,  or  when 
they  would  return,  or  if  they  ever  would.  And  now  in 
the  midst  of  ordinary  life  they  suddenly  step  again 
over  a  gang-plank  into  the  world,  changed  and  fortu- 
nate men,  bearing  with  them  in  its  most  attractive 
form  that  for  which  men  have  always  been  willing  to 
do  or  dare  or  suffer  almost  any  extreme  —  gold. 

The  almost  universal  question  rose :  Where  did 
these  men  come  from  ?  Where,  and  how  far  and 
what  is  this  Klondike?  In  what  form  did  they  find 
this  yellow  treasure  they  brought  with  them?  Can 
not  others  do  as  they  did  ? 

The  interest  is  natural.  Not  since  the  days  of 
1849,  and  not  even  then,  has  any  event  occurred  quite 
as  dramatic  as  the  arrival  of  this  northern  steamer, 
and  to  all  of  the  present  generation  the  old  tales  have 
seemed  half  unreal  and  never  to  be  repeated.  The 
event  was  entirely  unimportant  except  as  to  its  in- 
terest for  others,  and  the  hopes  it  induced  that  a  new 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


\ 


era  might  dawn  in  the  pei^ional  fortunes  of  thousands 
who  might  go  as  these  did  and  finally  return  with  the 
same  yellow  wealth.  So  The  Klondike  as  a  nrme,  and 
an  immense  region  lying  around  it  that  is  as  yet  un- 


a  a 


^1 

m 


-^t>> 


'X 


THE  NORTHERN  STEAMER. 


explored,  is  interesting  thousands  of  people.  The 
event  is  even  likely  to  change  in  time  the  commercial 
aspects  of  this  country  and  the  world.  A  vast  region, 
now  as  unknowp  as  central  Africa,  and  with  climatic 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


33. 


conditions  that  but  for  gold  would  have  forever  barred 
it  from  civilization,  is  now  destined  to  come  forward 
and  be  formed  into  some  semblance  of  order  and  occu- 
pancy ;  perhaps  at  last  to  be  made  into  the  strangest 
commonwealth  known  to  the  history  of  the  Sr:  on 
race. 

Young  men,  and  even  those  in  middle  life,  are  no<v 
thinkia^;  of  the  long  voyage,  of  the  chances  reserved 
fo '  them  by  fate,  of  how  to  get  there,  and  of  the  dis- 
tant  and  uncertain  day  when  they  may  return,  not  as 
th  ey  are,  but  as  those  later  argonauts  were  who  landed 
in  San  Francisco  and  in  a  manner  startled  the  world. 

It  is  natural  with  a  race  that  hitherto  has  stopped 
at  no  obstacle.  The  situation  is  peculiar.  The  region 
is  in  all  details  practically  unknown.  The  climate  is 
the  most  severe  that  was  ever  attempted  to  be  con- 
quered for  purposes  of  even  temporary  residence  by 
men  of  the  temperate  zones.  The  distances  are  very 
great  by  sea  or  land,  and  the  obstacles  and  difficulties 
to  be  passed  are  greater  than  even  those  which  existed 
when  the  paths  between  the  Missouri  and  California 
were  new- trodden  and  dimly  known. 

To  answer  some  of  these  questions ;  to  give  an  out- 
line of  the  situation  so  far  as  it  is  now  known,  or  can 
be  known  until  new  and  even  more  startling  facts  shall 
reach  the  world,  and  until  new  routes  are  made  and 
men  grow  accustomed  to  the  situation  and  h^ive 
learned  to  avoid  a  larger  number  of  its  difficulties,  is 
the  purpose  of  this  little  volume. 


WBm 


CHAPTER  II. 


THS   I,AND   AND  THK  JOURNEY. 


Since  1867  a  huge  territory  called  Alaska  has  mors 
or  less  interested  all  Americans.  Previous  to  that 
year  it  interested  them  veiy  little,  for  it  was  known 
as  Russian  America  in  the  geographies — a  country  of 
whiCh  Russia  herself  knew  little,  and  with  which  she 
did  little.  She  disposed  of  it  at  the  earliest  opportu- 
nity to  the  United  States  for  the  sum  of  about  seven 
millions  of  dollars.  William  H.  Seward,  the  war  Sec- 
retary of  State,  was  then  in  office.  The  contract  was 
ratified  and  no  particular  criticism  of  this  remarkable 
purchase  was  ever  made,  and  Alaska  has  long  since 
paid  back  far  more  than  her  cost,  which  was  not  more 
than  a  few  cents  an  acre  for  all  her  vast  territory.* 
Yet  we  did  not  need  her,  and  the  transaction  remains 
one  of  the  secrets  of  American  diplomacy.  Probably 
a  friendly  negotiation  with  the  huge  European  oli- 
garchy who  has,  strangely  enough,  always  been  our 
friend,  was  the  only  secret. 

One  singular  thing  was  accomplished  that  is  not 
often  mentioned.  The  saying  that  "on  her  dominion 
the  sun  never  sets"  is  not  true  of  England  alone. 
When  the  rays  fall  at  sunset  on  Oumnak,  the  far- 
western  islet  of  the  long  Aleutian  chain,  they  at  the 

'!'  Above  130,000,000  of  gold  had  been  taken  out  of  AUaka  prerlom  to  the 
Klondike  find. 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.  d 

same  moment  light  with  the  rising  dawn  that  point 
of  Maine  which  juts  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  and  in 
his  course  the  sun  lights  for  us  one  continuous  coun- 
try, lacking  only  that  narrow  strip  of  territory  which 
lies  on  the  west  coast  of  British  Columbia  where 
Canada  runs  to  the  sea. 

Alaska  was  almost  unknown  at  the  time  of  its 
purchase,  and  is  but  little  better  known  now.  Any 
new  feature  or  product  necessarily  is  a  new  discov- 
ery. In  articles  in  the  latest  encyclopaedias  one  will 
not  find  gold  mentioned  as  one  of  the  products.  It 
is  the  home  of  wandering  tribes,  Indians  and  Esqui- 
maux, and  in  all  the  vast  interior  and  northern  part 
there  are  supposed  to  be  only  about  fifteen  thousand 
even  of  these  savages.  They  are  said  also  to  be  dying 
oflF,  though  there  were  two  years  ago  not  twice  that 
niimber  of  white  people  to  take  what  they  might 
leave  in  the  way  of  territory. 

It  is  to  our  ideas,  and  notwithstanding  the  im- 
mense territory  to  whose  contrasts  we  have  been  long 
accustomed,  a  strange  country.  Its  coast-line  is 
nearly  eight  thousand  miles  long— larger  than  the 
entire  Atlant: :  coast  of  the  United  States.  From 
north  to  south  the  extreme  length  of  the  territory  is 
eleven  hundred  miles.  From  east  to  west  it  is  eight 
hundred  miles.  Its  area  is  514,700  square  miles.  A 
glance  at  the  map  shows  a  queerly  shaped  territory. 
An  ari^iof  it  runs  southward  in  a  long  "  panhandle" 
about  six  hundred  miles  long  and  of  an  average  width 
of  fifty  miles.      This  was  the  form  of  the  Russian 


10 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


possession  before  we  acquired  it,  and  an  equally  nar- 
row strip  off  of  the  west  coast  of  British  Columbia, 
extending  southt«rard,  would  give  us  continuous  terri- 
tory up  to,  and  including,  all  Alaska.  It  is  the  soli- 
tary instance  of  our  possessions  not  touching  each 
other  throughout  their  extent. 

And  in  certain  respects  the  climate  is  strange.  It 
is  far  north,  and  is  expected  to  be,  and  is,  extremely 
cold.  Its  southern  boundary  is  the  sixtieth  degree  of 
north  latitude,  and  the  arctic  circle  passes  through  its 
northern  half.  Yet  the  climate  of  the  southwestern 
part  is  fairly  warm,  and  it  is  the  rainiest  country  in 
the  world.  This  is  owing  to  the  warm  current  of  the 
Pacific,  sometimes  called  the  Kiro-Siwo,  or  Japanese 
current.  There  is  much  rain,  a  short  summer  and 
little  heat.  The  cereal  crops  will  grow,  but  they  will 
not  mature.    Alaska  will  never  be  a  farming  country.'!' 

But  it  has  certain  other  natural  resources.  For- 
ests, fish  and  furs  are,  and  probably  will  always  be, 
abundant.  In  the  streams  the  salmon  in  the  season 
almost  fill  the  current  and  climb  over  each  other. 
Fur-bearing  animals  abound.  There  are  regions 
where  the  bears  are  so  numerous  that  the  Indians 
and  whites  alike  find  it  more  agreeable  to  let  them 
have  almost  exclusive  possession.  In  these  parts 
salmon  is  the  chief  sub;t'stence  of  the  bears  as  well  as 
of  the  people,  the  latter  catching  a  year's  supply  while 
the  fish  run,  and  the  bears  finding  a  scanty  subsist- 
ence the  rest  of  the  time,  eked  out  by  a  long  sleep  in 


*  This  has  been  always  said,  and  until  recently  alwajra  believed.    It  is 
now  disputed.    See  remarks  of  Prof.  Jack.son,  in  Aupplement. 


■■r^-iff'l't*      i  I'll- 


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THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


11 


winter.  On  the  coast  there  is  cod-fishing  as  good  as 
it  is  on  the  Newfoundland  banks.  Not  far  off  the 
coast  are  the  Prybilof  seal  islands,  which,  with  others, 
have  been  the  cause  of  much  contention  between  our 
government  and  that  of  Great  Britain. 

Just  where  Alaska  begins  to  jut  out  from  the  main 
continent,  and  form  a  huge  square  indented  cape 
stretching  westward  until  it  almost  touches  Asia,  and 
at  about  the  140th  meridian  of  west  longitude,  is  the 
Canadian  boundary-line.  The  Yukon,  the  great 
northwestern  river,  a  mile  wide  six  hundred  miles 
from  the  coast,  rises  in  this  British  territory,  its 
two  branches,  Pelly  river  and  the  Porcupine,  joining 
each  other  in  eastern  Alaska  and  running  westward 
through  the  country  as  the  Yukon  a  distance  of  about 
2,800  miles  to  the  western  coast. 

Circle  City,  Alaska,  appears  now  on  all  maps,  and 
is  convenient  as  a  reference.  It  is  an  American  set- 
tlement near  the  boundary  line.  It  is  at  least  fifteen 
hundred  miles  from  the  river's  mouth.  Beyond  it 
still,  some  three  hundred  miles  up  the  stream  and 
across  the  line,  the  little  river  called  the  Reindeer 
runs  into  the  Yukon,  or  Pelly,  as  an  affluent,  and 
this  is  now  the  place  so  much  heard  of  called  Klon- 
dike, or  "The  Klondike,"  where  the  alleged  richest 
placer  gold  fields  in  the  world  lie. 

Since  this  name  and  place  are  now  attracting  an 
attention  almost  universal,  let  us  try  to  form  seme  idea 
of  distances.  It  is  the  longest  and  hardest  road  ever 
traveled  for  gold.      Th^  usual  route   is   from  San 


IS 


THE  KLONDIKE, 


Francisco  to  Seattle  first,  if  one  starts  from  the  formei 
place.  Then  nearly  west  from  Seattle  to  the  opening 
in  the  Aleutians  at  Ounimak.  Thence  northeast  to 
St.  Michaels.  All  this  is  a  journey  of  at  least  five 
thousand  miles.  Up  the  river  to  the  "diggings"  is 
another  seventeen  hundred  miles  in  round  numbers  ; 
six  thousand  five  hundred  miles  of  travel  at  least 
from  San  Francisco. 

It  is  useless  to  describe  here  the  means  of  transpor- 
tation. A  few  steamers  that  were  uutil  recently  en- 
gaged in  the  northern  business  will  now  be  increased 
in  number  to  meet  the  demand.  The  navigation  of 
the  Yukon  is  closed  by  the  end  of  September.  Seattle 
will  be  crowded  all  winter  with  people  who  have 
started  too  late,  but  who  wish  to  go  by  the  earliest 
steamer  of  the  spring  of  '98.  The  northern  business 
has  been  until  the  extraordinary  late  demand  arose,  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  men ;  the  North  American  Trans- 
portation and  Trading  Company  being  most  exten- 
sively in  the  business.  Besides  the  boats  used  in  the 
traffic  it  owns  the  stpres  along  the  Yukon  river.  Its 
principal  business  is  the  sale  of  supplies  to  the  people 
it  has  carried  thither,  and  it  has  had  practically  a 
monopoly.  The  charge  has  been  $165.00  for  the  pas- 
sage, with  150  pounds  of  baggage  from  Seattle  to  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Yukon.  They  feed  the  passenger 
on  the  way,  but  have  not  allowed  him  to  carry  any 
supplies  for  his  own  use.  These  supplies  must  be 
obtained  from  the  company's  agents.  They  can  either 
be  bought  as  wanted  or  contracted  for  beforehand. 
When  bought  as  wanted  it  is  manifest  that  prices  may 


..^^.^HBt    V 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.        13 


be  higher  or  lower  according  to  demands  and  scarcity, 
and  there  may  not  be  enough  to  go  round  at  all.  For 
four  hundred  dollars  cash  in  advance  this  company 
has  been  in  the  habit  of  guaranteeing  a  year's  subsist- 
ence. For  the  winter  of  1897-98,  though  efforts  have 
been  made  to  get  an  immense  supply  of  necessaries 
up  the  Yukon,  there  are  those  who  think  there  is  not 
enough,  and  that  enough  cannot  be  provided  with  all 
the  facilities  of  transportation  now  at  hand  to  meet 
the  probable  demand  at  any  price. 

With  the  spring  of  1898  must  come  an  end  to  this 
arrangement,  so  far  at  least  as  any  monopoly  of  the 
business  is  concerned.  It  is  natural  for  prudent  men 
to  wish  to  supply  themselves,  and  find  transportation 
for  these  supplies.  A  pressing  demand  brings  com- 
petition always.  With  a  certainty  of  this  fact  before 
him  one  who  contemplates  going  to  the  Klondike 
will  remember  two  things ;  that  it  is  a  journey  that 
cannot  be  made  in  winter,  and  late  in  the  summer 
means  winter ;  that  presen'  facilities  for  the  long 
jourr .,  are  entirely  inadequate,  and  will  be  increased 
and  changed  with  inevitable  certainty  if  the  demand 
continues.  Add  to  this  conclusion  another  fact.  If 
the  demand  does  not  continue  it  will  be  a  very  fortu- 
nate thing  that  any  man  who  wanted  to  go  did  not 
succeed.  It  will  mean  a  failure  of  the  gold  pros- 
pects. 


^ 


A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  the  other  route  to 
the  Klondike.  This  route  is  from  Seattle  north  to 
Sitka  along  the  coast.     From  Sitka  northward  it  is 


14 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


through  the  bays  and  inlets  of  that  coast  to  Juneau. 
From  Juneau  to  the  head  waters  of  the  sound,  where 
there  is  a  settlement,  and  near  which  Chilkoot  Pass 
opens  to  the  southward.  All  this  is  on  United  States 
territory,  but  the  British  boundary  line  runs  across 
the  mouth  of  the  pass,  roughly  speaking,  and  the 
remaining  six  hundred  and  seventy-eight  miles  of 
the  roughest  mountain  journey  conceivable  are  on 
British  soil.  Prom  Seattle  to  the  diggings  is  about 
1,678  miles. 

But  a  few  months  ago  Chilkoot  Pass  was  known,  or 
had  been  traveled,  by  a  very  few  men.  Wagons  are 
as  yet  impossible.  Travelers  must  use  pack-ponies 
or  dogs  and  their  own  backs.  The  hardiest  of  north- 
em  woodmen  and  hunters  could  make  such  a  journey, 
where  the  average  man  must  leave  his  bones. 

But  the  "overland  "  route  is  being  investigated, 
and  discoveries  will  follow  as  they  always  do.  Time 
was  when  General  Fremont  was  commissioned  to  find 
paths  acrObS  the  mountains  that  have  now  long  been 
familiar,  and  when  they  began  to  be  used  the  Panama 
route  to  the  Pacific  was  abandoned.  So  it  will  be 
with  the  land-passage  to  the  frozen  north  if  the  in- 
ducement remains  long  enough.  Two  other  passes 
are  now  known  besides  the  first-named,  one  of  which 
is  the  White  Pass.  Any  of  them  involve  a  land  journey 
of  six  hundred  miles.  A  man  can  take  as  much  with 
him  as  he  wishes,  but  wishes  do  not  govern.  Indian 
guides  charge,  it  is  said,  a  dollar  a  pcnnd  for  carrying 
goods  across  the  mountain  streams.  Any  kind  of  a 
carrying  outfit  requires  a  large  expenditure  of  money, 


IN  CHILROOT   PASS. 


1« 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


and  this  outfit  must  consist  either  of  dogs  or  ponits. 
Strangely  enough,  the  dog-sledge  is  preferred. 

Transportation  is  so  precious  that  a  man  who  can- 
not carry  a  load  on  his  back  weighing  fifty  pounds 
might  better  not  start,  because  an  emergency  may 
arise  at  any  time  that  would  deprive  him  of  all  other 
means  of  carrying  the  absolute  necessities  of  life. 

Every  new  enterprise  is  marked  by  innumerable 
mistakes.  All  inexperienced  miners  load  themselves 
\dth  things  they  afterwards  throw  away.  For  such  a 
journey  the  most  primitive  necessities  of  life  only  can 
be  carried,  and  for  such  a  country  as  Alaska  all  we 
mean  by  the  word  "clothing"  in  civilized  life  must 
be  cast  aside.  Underwear  is  made  of  heavy  blanket 
flannel.  Coarse,  strong  trousers,  the  heaviest  and 
most  durable  made,  must  be  worn.  Foot-wear  must 
be  coarse,  heavy  and  strong.  The  coat  should  be  a 
pea  jacket.  A  "  slicker,"  by  which  is  meant  a  water- 
proof coat,  should  be  carried.  The  fur-lined  sleeping 
bag  of  the  artic  regions  is  a  necessity.  A  few  tin 
pans  and  cups,  and  a  frying-pan  and  coffee-pot,  con- 
stitute the  cooking  vessels.  A  pick  and  a  long- 
handled  spade  are  the  chief  needed  tools.  To  go 
loaded  with  fire-arms  is  foolish,  though  one  rifle  to  a 
party,  and  a  good  revolver  per  man,  is  not  super- 
fluous. 

When  the  .scene  is  reached  the  first  essential  is  a 
shelter  of  some  kind.  In  the  summer  a  tent  will  an- 
swer, but  there  is  little  summer,  and  among  th«  first 
tasks  is  that  of  preparing  a  place  for  winter.  When 
timber  for  building  a  log-house  is  scarce  the  only 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


17 


>r  ponies, 
i. 

(vho  can- 
pounds 
ncy  may 

all  other 

life. 

umerable 
lemselves 
or  such  a 
;  only  can 
ka  all  we 

life  must 
y  blanket 
viest  and 
vear  must 
ould  be  a 
It  a  water- 
id  sleeping 
A  few  tin 
5-pot,  con- 
d  a  long- 
8.  To  go 
5  rifle  to  a 
not  super- 

ential  is  a 
nt  will  an- 
ag  the  first 
cr.  When 
;  the  only 


resource  is  a  "  dug-out "  excavated  in  the  side  of  a 
hill  and  well  drained.  It  is  in  any  event  a  struggle  for 
life  agains  the  rigors  of  an  artic  winter. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  nothing  to  eat  can 
be  grown  there.  The  brief  summer  does  not  bring 
relief  from  famine.  For  all  time  to  come  common 
necessities  must  be  imported.  The  salmon  with  which 
the  streams  abound  in  the  running  season  are  not 
good  human  food  for  any  but  Indians.  The  fur- 
bearing  animals  are  as  a  rule  not  eatable. 

Hope,  haste  and  imagination  will  carry  many  a 
man  off  his  feet  in  this  new  excitement.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  road  is  the  farthest,  longest  and 
hardest  ever  traveled  for  gold,  and  that  the  country, 
when  reached,  is  probably  hopeless  for  any  other  pur- 
pose than  mining.  The  climate  is  appalling  when 
met  under  any  but  the  most  favorable  conditions  of 
health,  courage  and  resources. 

And  a  word  further  as  to  the  particulars  of  this  cli- 
mate of  an  unknown  country.  To  go  there  is  equiv- 
alent to  entering  within  the  arctic  circle.  Eight 
months  in  the  year  the  world  there  is  in  the  relentless 
grasp  of  frost.  During  the  winter  of  1896-97  the 
mercury  was  at  times  seventy  degrees  below  zero,  and 
often  it  falls  to  ninety.  The  ground  freezes  to  a  depth 
of  fifteen  feet  or  more.  Streams  are  locked  fast  in  an 
embrace  that  dynamite  could  not  sunder.  Vast  fields 
of  snow  cover  the  arctic  scene.  It  is  a  mountainous 
land,  over  which  roads  in  winter  are  quite  impassable. 
Plenty  to  eat  of  oily  food,  plenty  to  wear  of  the 
thickest  kind,  and  a  house  into  which  tht  bitter,  still, 


18 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


numbing  cold  cannot  enter,  are  absolute  necessities. 
Summer,  so  called,  is  a  season  of  melting  snows, 
slush,  mud,  and  sometimes  there  may  be  a  day  of 
intense  humid  heat.  None  of  these  things  will  deter 
humanity  when  gold  is  the  stake,  but  not  to  know, 
or  to  undervalue  the  conditions,  will  be  suicide  to 
many  an  adventurer. 


scessities. 
ig  snows, 
a  day  of 
nrill  deter 
to  know, 
luicide  to 


CHAPTER  III. 


r.OU)   MINKS   AND   MINING. 


Old  men  remember  the  times  of  the  California 
gold  excitement.  Except  in  placer  mining  there  is 
hardly  a  single  process  used  now  that  was  the  best 
that  could  be  done  in  mining  then,  and  even  in  dig- 
ging and  washing  free  gold  out  of  gravel,  "  pay-dirt," 
many  of  the  minor  processes  have  changed. 

But  in  respect  to  the  finding  and  mining  of  gold, 
the  vast  majority  of  those  who  go  to  the  Klondike 
will  at  first  know  almost  absolutely  nothing.  Some 
of  the  more  prudent  and  acute  will  try  to  find  out  as 
much  as  possible  about  it  before  they  start.  The  ma- 
jority will  leave  the  farm  and  the  shop  and  trust  to 
luck.  Some  of  these  will  be  successful,  as  in  the  old 
Californian  times,  and  as  in  those  times,  a  man  who 
has  mined  for  years  will  go  over  the  ground  and  find 
no  "sign,"  though  as  eager  as  any  one  to  make  a 
"strike."  A  tenderfoot  who  knows  nothing  at  all 
will  come  prodding  and  aimlessly  digging  over  the 
.same  ground  and  "strike  it  rich."  In  all  placer 
mining  there  enters  the  enticing  and  unfortunate  ele- 
ment of  chance. 

A  word  may  be  said  here  with  regard  to  the  plen- 
tifulness  of  free  gold  at  places  nearer  home  than  the 
Klondike.  The  excitement  is  long  ago  over,  and 
most  people's  attention  Las  been  occupied  with  the 


■ 


20 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


idea  of  mining  by  machinery  costing  large  sums,  and 
the  taking  of  gold  in  various  combinations  with  other 
metals  from  lodes  which  lie  imbedded  in  ledges  of 
quartz. 

But  there  is  still  placer  mining  in  the  United  States. 
When  the  careless  and  impatient  California  placer 
miner  had  worked  out  his  claim  and  abandoned  it, 
along  came  the  Chinaman,  and  worked  over  all  his 
"  tailings,"  and,  it  has  been  often  said,  took  out  more 
gold  than  the  original  miner  did.  So  in  later  times, 
ground  that  has  been  repeatedly  gone  over  in  the  old 
days  is  still  worked  by  later  miners.  Colomdo  is  rich 
in  plajer  mines.  In  1897  the  gold  product  of  that 
state  will  be  about  $20,000,000,  as  against  $16,500,- 
000,  in  1896.  In  the  low  grade  diggings  there  are 
many  millions  awaiting  the  expensive  building  of 
flumes  and  ditches.  Immense  placers  in  one  locality 
in  northern  Colorado  are  estimated  to  contain  $800,- 
000,000  in  free  gold,  and  a  ditch  forty  miles  long  will 
open  these  fields.  In  southwestern  Colorado  there  is 
a  placer  field  a  hundred  miles  in  length.  Clear  Creek 
and  Gilpin,  almost  in  sight  of  Denver,  which  have 
been  mined  ever  since  the  Pike's  Peak  excitement,  are 
yielding  more  gold  now  every  year  than  they  ever  did 
then.  In  California,  in  almost  all  the  old  fields, 
placer  mining  still  goes  on,  and  new  diggings  are  con- 
stantly discovered.  A  glaace  at  the  figures  show  that 
the  annual  output  is  immense,  and  constantly  increas- 
ing. But  the  excitement  is  gone.  A  miner  goes 
steadily  about  his  business  in  a  civilized  community. 
The  climate  is  inviting  instead  of  repellant.  With  im- 


of 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


21 


proved  processes  mining  in  these  regions  has  become 
a  business,  not  a  speculation,  and  the  charm  is  gone. 
Would  it  not  be  well  for  the  reader  who  wants  to 
go  to  Klondike  to  ask  himself  how  much  the  love  of 
adventure,  and  the  instinct  that  courts  chance  and 
luck,  is  mixed  up  with  his  desires  toward  that  new 
region  ? 


There  are  unquestionably  many  hundreds  of  per- 
sons who  are  now  thinking  of  the  Klondike,  and  who 
are  exceedingly  anxious  to  try  their  fortunes  there, 
whose  only  idea  of  gold  is  that  it  comes  out  of  the 
ground,  that  it  is  dug  for,  and  found,  and  is  the  direct 
representative  of  all  values,  got  at  first  hands  without 
waiting,  and  that  in  a  week  or  a  month  one  may  be- 
come immensely  rich. 

To  some  of  these  it  may  be  interesting  to  know 
something  of  the  long  story  of  gold  mining,  of  the 
various  forms  of  that  industry,  and  of  the  details 
accompanying  the  simplest  modes  of  securing  the 
mysterious  yellow  treasure  that  has  a  greater  fascina- 
tion for  the  human  eye  ^  Han  any  other  form  of  wealth. 

Gold  is  a  metal  that  has  been  found  almost  every- 
where over  the  world,  but  always  in  limited  quan- 
tities. It  is,  of  course,  in  this  limit  of  product  that  its 
value  chiefly  consists.  There  is  even  English  gold. 
There  is  gold  in  eastern  S'beria,  opposite  Alaska. 
It  is  found  in  most  of  tht.  countries  in  Europe. 
Gypsies  and  poor  people  ever  jow  work  the  sands  of 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  for  the  small  particles  of 
gold  found  in  them.     lu  Austria,  in  the  Tyrol,  in 


22 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


Italy,  in  Hungary,  there  are  gold  mines.  Carolina 
gold  was  once  a  well-known  product  in  this  country, 
though  now  few  persons  remember  that  gold  was  ever 
mined  there. 

Every  one  of  these  places  has  in  its  day  been  the 
scene  or  source  of  an  excitement,  a  "  gold-fever." 

All  the  mines  from  which  was  taken  the  gold  of 
the  earlier  ages  are  now,  so  far  as  can  be  known,  for- 
gotten. A  very  little  of  the  yellow  metal  went  as  far 
then  as  a  great  deal  does  now.  It  was  a  little  square, 
flat  world  in  the  common  belief,  in  which  were  not 
included  at  all  the  very  countries  that  have  produced 
nearly  all  the  gold  of  modern  times. 

Gold  is  chiefly  found  in  one  or  the  other  of  two 
special  forms.  First,  in  mineral  veins,  usually  quartz, 
and  in  that  case  generally  associated  with  other 
metals,  such  as  lead,  silver,  calcium,  bismuth,  the 
pyrytes,  etc.  Sometimes  these  admixtures  are  of 
great  density  and  hardness.  Often  the  gold  found  in 
connection  with  them  is  in  very  minute  quantity. 
Most  of  the  modern  processes  of  mining  have  their 
uses  in  cheaper  or  more  rapid  ways  of  separating 
these  metals,  and  getting  out  the  gold,  the  silver,  the 
lead,  separately.  Metallurgy  is  the  highest  branch 
of  chemistr>%  and  chemistry  is  the  highest  field  of 
modern  applied  science.  Most  of  the  gold  mines  of 
today  depend  for  their  value  upon  scientific  processes, 
constantly  in  the  hands  of  experts.  All  the  romance 
is  taken  away.  Immense  sums  are  invested  in  ma- 
chinery. Sometimes  they  pay  largely,  more  often 
only  moderately,  and  frequently  they  cease  after  a 


% 


THE  NE  W  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


23 


Carolina 
country, 
was  ever 

been  the 
ver." 
e  gold  of 
own,  for- 
:nt  as  far 
e  square, 
were  not 
produced 

;r  of  two 
y  quartz, 
th  other 
luth,  the 
s  are  of 
found  in 
quantity, 
ave  their 
"parating 
ilver,  the 
it  branch 
t  field  of 
mines  of 
trocesses, 
romance 
i  in  ma- 
)re  often 
2  after  a 


while  to  pay  at  all.  In  the  midst  of  unusual  excite- 
ment it  is  worth  while  to  realize  that  even  gold  min- 
ing always  comes  down  at  last  to  a  business  basis. 

The  other  form  in  which  gold  is  found  is  that 
which  always  first  attracts  the  attention  of  mankind, 
and  causes  rushes  to  certain  localities.  It  is  where 
the  dream  of  sudden  wealth  seems  likely  to  be  real- 
ized, and  the  dull  yellow  metal  can  be  actually  seen 
and  taken  up  in  the  hand — found,  held,  owned. 

This  is  placer  mining,  Placer  is  a  Spanish  word, 
pronounced  properly  pla-^azV,  and  means  literally 
pleasure;  that  is,  plenty  of  metal  easily  mined.  We 
obtained  the  terra  when  we  got  California,  and  pro- 
nounce it  in  our  own  way.  The  gold  thus  found  is 
free  gold,  in  "dust,"  nuggets,  scales,  filaments, 
lumps.  The  gravel  '\\\  which  it  lies  is  called  "  pay- 
dirt."  It  came  there  by  being  ground  by  natural 
processes  out  of  the  quartz  or  other  matrix  in  which 
nature  placed  it,  and  deposited  in  a  more  or  less  un- 
mixed and  natural  state  amid  the  washings  of  the 
hills  and  mountains.  Therefore  placer  diggings  al- 
most always  lie  near  streams  or  washes,  or  where 
there  was  once  a  stream,  though  it  may  have  been  so 
long  ago  that  all  traces  of  it  are  obliterated.  The 
nature  of  the  ground  is  alluvial.  It  came  from  some- 
where else.  It  bore  with  it  in  its  movings  these 
ground-out  grains  of  gold.  It  is  a  heavy  metal,  and 
as  it  moved  it  gradually  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the 
mass.  Often  the  gold  lies  at  the  very  bottom  of  the 
gravel  on  the  "  bed  rock,"  stopping  there  because  it 
could  sink   no  fartlier.    When  it  has  reached  that 


Ik 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


resting-place  a  natural  roughness  or  obstruction  of  tlie 
rock  may  intervene,  and  may  have  caused  it  to  gather 
more  thickly  in  one  place  than  in  another.  This  con- 
stitutes a  placer  field.  s^Vhen  the  gathering  is  in 
quantity  unusual  in  one  place  the  diggings  are  very 
rich,  and  many  persons  grow  excited,  and  thousands 
of  people  want  to  go  there  at  once.  Free  gold  may  be 
thinly  scatttered  over  a  large  area.  In  this  area 
there  are  usually  rich  spots  from  the  causes  men- 
tioned. "Prospecting"  is  a  diligent  locking  for 
these  spots.  I':  is  usually  all  underground.  Sur- 
face indications  show  littl*  or  nothing  except  ii 
streams.  Hence  the  element — the  fascinating  and 
unfortunate  element — of  luck  and  chance. 

Placer  mining  has  always  been  the  boon  of  the 
poor  man.  At  first,  at  least,  machinery  is  not  re- 
quired. He  takes  his  find  out  of  the  sand  by  simple 
and  crude  home-made  processes,  and  without  melting, 
or  refining,  or  chemicals,  the  only  really  yellow  metal 
in  all  nature  is  his,  and  just  as  he  finds  it  it  will  buy 
anything  this  world  has  to  sell. 

All  the  gold  of  ancient  times  ;  the  gold  of  the  ves- 
sels of  the  tempi':*,  aad  of  Solomon's  treasures,  and  of 
the  old  Romr.n  empire,  was  got  by  placer  mining. 
The  chemical  processes,  and  the  machinery,  are  all,  so 
far  as  known,  of  modern  invention.  They  do  what 
nature  did  when  she  made  the  placers  ;  they  grind  it 
out  of  the  rock  where  it  was  placed  in  veins  by  an- 
cient melting  and  pressure  processes,  and  reduce  and 
refine  and  separate  it.  The  miner  who  strikes  it  rich 
in  placer  diggings  has  had  all  this  done  for  him  by 


The  new  gold  fields  of  Alaska. 


25 


nature  without  cost.     This  illustrates  briefly  the  two 
kinds  of  mining. 

Placer  mines  usually  yield  gold  in  the  form  of  fine 
particles  called  ' '  dust, ' '  but  not  always.  The  dig- 
gings at  Klondike  are  so  far  remarkable  in  chieHy 
giving  up  their  store  in  the  form  of  flakes,  scales, 
small  pieces  called  "nuggets."  Of  the  quantity 
usually  yielded  by  placer  diggings  in  proportion  to  the 
total  amount  of  dirt  washed,  many  erroneous  ideas  are 
held.  In  California  in  the  flush  times,  and  in  the  rich- 
est fields  known  up  to  that  time,  the  average  amount 
of  gold  found  to  every  ton  of  dirt  was  about  forty-five 
cents  worth.  In  Australia  at  about  the  same  time 
the  yield  was  larger  —  about  eighty  to  ninety  cents 
being  got  out  of  an  average  ton.  The  stories  from 
the  Klondike  exceed  these  modest  figures  so  far, 
and  il  will  be  seen  that  fifty,  a  hundred,  five  hundred 
dollars  to  the  pan  (not  the  ton)  are  startling  results. 
The  opinion  of  old  miners  is  that  these  finds  are  in 
reality  pockets,  limited  in  extent,  unusual,  and  not  to 
be  counted  upon  as  falling  within  the  yield  of  the 
usual  mining  claim.  They  believe  there  is  gold  there, 
perhaps  even  in  comparatively  great  plenty,  but  also 
that  there  are  many  fields  in  Alaska  that  will  equal 
those  of  the  Klondike  in  final  general  results,  and 
that  this  general  result  will  in  a  year  or  two  come 
within  the  limits  of  the  previous  experience  of  man- 
kind. If  not ;  if  the  indications  so  far  apply  gener- 
ally ;  then  that  the  Almighty  has  reserved  for  these 
later  times  the  richest  gold-find  of  all  history,  and 


f 


26 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


fenced  it  in  with  all  the  terrors  and  perils  of  the  arctic 
zone. 


In  placer  mining  there  are  used  certain  tools  and 
implements,  the  names  of  which  are  long  since  famil- 
iar, but  the  definite  uses  of  which  aie  not  so  well 
understood.  The  miner's  outfit  is  very  simple.  It 
means  not  so  much  costly  and  technical  tools  as  very 
hard  work  and  patience. 

As  previously  stated,  the  prime  necessities  are  a 
pick  and  a  shovel.  There  is  always  digging  to  be 
done,  and  after  the  digging  comes  the  ' '  washing. ' ' 
This  operation  requires,  at  least  in  prospecting  and 
first  work,  a  "  pan."  This  is  a  circular  dish  of  sheet 
iron — a  common  tin  wash-basin  will  answer — about 
thirteen  or  fourteen  inches  in  diameter.  It  is  filled 
about  two-thirds  full  of  dirt,  and  held  in  the  running 
stream  or  in  a  hole  filled  with  water.  The  miner 
usually  picks  out  the  larger  stones  by  hand,  and  gives 
a  peculiar  motion  compounded  of  a  shake  and  a  twist 
to  the  pan.  He  wants  to  keep  the  contents  suspended 
in  the  stream  of  water,  so  that  the  lighter  contents 
will  wash  out  of  the  pan,  while  the  heavier  will  sink 
to  the  bottom.  Among  these,  black  sand,  iron  ore, 
etc.,  will  be  found  the  grains  of  gold.  This  washing 
is  repeated  until  a  quantity  of  the  heavier  stuff  is 
collected,  and  the  gold- that  is  in  it  is  finally  recovered 
by  another  careful  washing  in  the  pan,  this  last  oper- 
ation being  called  "panning  out." 

A  "cradle  "  or  "  rocker  "  is  a  less  familiar  imple- 
ment.    It  is  an  oblong  box  with  rockers  on  the  bot- 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.        27 

torn  like  a  child's  cradle.  At  one  end  is  a  movable 
hopper  with  a  perforated  sheet-iron  bottom,  and  in 
this  the  dirt  is  placed.  Water  is  poured  on  this,  and 
the  machine  is  rocked  to  and  fro  with  an  upright 
wooden  handle.  Below  the  hopper,  and  along  the 
bottom  of  the  box,  are  placed  cross  pieces  of  wood 
called  ' •  riffles. ' '     Beside  these,  as  the  cradle  is  rocked 


THE  SLUICE. 

and  the  water  carries  the  dirt  slowly  along  the  slop- 
ing bottom  of  the  box,  the  particles  of  gold  collect. 

On  the  same  principle,  but  of  more  extensive  ca- 
pacity, is  the  "sluice."  This  is  a  longer  box  with 
riffles.  They  are  often  joined  in  series,  and  may  ex- 
tend several  hundred  feet.  A  stream  of  water  is  in- 
troduced into  the  upper  end,  the  dirt  is  cast  in  with  a 


T 


28 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


shovel,  the  rifGles  retard  the  stream  so  as  to  allow  the 
heavier  particles  to  settle  against  them,  and  finally 
there  is  a  "  clean-up  "  and  a  "pan-out." 

The  long-accustomed  wealth  of  a  Vanderbilt  or 
Gould  or  Rockefeller  may  cease  to  charm.  It  be- 
comes usual.  But  to  have  the  feeling  of  growing 
wealth  come  suddenly  must  make  a  moment  in  a 
man's  life  worth  many  days  of  toil.  It  is  this  that 
gives  the  charm  to  the  placer  mining  industry.  To 
work  for  the  pan-out,  to  wait  for  its  results,  and  at 
last  to  find  it  rich  beyond  compare ;  this  is  the  min- 
er's dream.  And,  as  in  the  results  of  a  lottery-draw- 
ing, it  is  the  fortunate  man  alone  who  is  known,  and 
his  success  is  heralded.  Surely  in  all  the  mining  ad- 
ventures of  the  world,  the  great  majority  have  failed. 
It  will  be  true  also  of  the  Klondike,  thoi:gh  of  these 
uncertainties  and  risks  the  world  will  never  take 
warning,  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  man  who 
has  spent  his  life  in  a  mining  country,  and  knows  his 
own  story  and  the  story  of  a  hundred  other  ragged 
millionaires,  is  the  last  of  all  to  accept  the  wamidg  of 
universal  experience  and  oft-repeated  failure. 

With  these  facts  before  them  it  is  not  singular  that 
almost  all  miners  believe  in  the  existence,  somewhere, 
of  a  "  Mother  Vein,"  the  source  of  all  the  gold.  But 
in  all  the  world  so  far  this  great  repository  of  untold 
riches  has  never  been  found.  There  may  be  many 
such  mother  veins  ;  there  may  be  none  at  all.  It  may 
exist  in  a  liquid  state  in  the  white-hot  bowels  of  the 
earth,  and  from  it  in  times  long  past  may  have  been 
injected  into  the  fissures  of  the  cooling  quartz  all  of  it 


■ 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


29 


that  has  ever  been  found,  either  ground  out  and 
washed  down  into  the  placer-fields,  or  clinging  still  to 
its  original  matrix. 

In  connection  with  the   Klondike  fields  they  are 
again  discussing  the  nearness  of  the  mother-vein. 
It  is  among  the  dreams  of  men  that  there  is  even  a 
renewed  possibility  of  its  being  found.     But  no  quartz 
veins  have  thus  far  been  found  near  the  place.    The 
rich  find  has  come  from  a  distance  and  direction  un- 
known, and  whether  down  the  streams  from  the  north, 
or  whether  carried  thither  by  glacial  action,  any  theory 
built  upon  present  known  facts  would  indicate  that 
the  mysterious  source  of  riches  is,  if  it  exists  at  all, 
possibly  hidden  beneath  a  garment  of  eternal  ice  that 
all  the  suns  of  the  present  creation  will  not  melt. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THK    ACTUAL   CONDITIONS. 


H 

i! 

i 


Although  many  millions  had  been  taken  out  of  the 
purchase  of  Secretary  Seward  in  the  past  few  years, 
there  was  no  hint  of  immense  and  unexampled  min- 
eral wealth  in  the  Alaskan  region  until  late  in  the 
summer  of  1896.  Some  weeks  after  the  first  find  it 
was  rumored  locally  that  a  strike  had  been  made  at 
Klondike,  or  Reindeer  river,  and  Circle  City  and  other 
camps  began  instantly  to  be  deserted  by  their  adven- 
turous inhabitants  for  the  new  diggings. 

The  name,  variously  spelled,  but  now  known  to  be 
jK'loon  Dtuck,  and  Indian  in  its  original  meaning  of 
"Fish  river,"  or  "plenty  offish,"  has  now  taken 
permanent  form  as  it  stands.  While  all  the  charts 
speak  of  Reindeer  river,  they  too  were  mistaken,  for 
there  were  never  any  reindeer  there  to  name  it  for,  and 
will  not  be  until  the  experiment  of  bringing  them 
thither  and  propagating  them  as  domestic  animals 
fitted  to  such  a  region  has  further  advanced.  The 
dog  has,  however,  been  adopted  as  a  draught-animal 
on  American  soil,  and  the  reindeer  will  undoubtedly 
become  in  that  region  a  common  domestic  animal 
within  a  brief  time.  To  this  slight  degree  at  least 
our  ideas  have  been  changed  by  our  Alaskan  domain. 
Reindeer  river  is  among  the  best  salmon  streams 
running  into  the  Yukon.     At  every  stream  during  the 

80 


3;;=^^^?>f>aw 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


31 


season  some  of  the  vast  throng  of  fish  turn  aside,  the 
main  body  going  up  the  Yukon  at  the  rate  of  about  a 
hundred  miles  a  day.  Nevertheless,  it  is  at  its  mouth 
a  shallow  stream,  easily  prospected.  And  it  had  been 
visited  by  miners,  but  they  made  no  remarkable  finds. 
It  is  believed  that  they  did  not  linger  to  further  inves- 
tigate because  discouraged  by  the  number  of  bears. 
A  find  of  magnitude  would  have  detained  them  not- 
withstanding. l»at  the  bears  were  there  for  salmon  and 
the  men  for  gold.  One  party  found  what  they  wanted 
and  the  other  did  not,  and  the  intimate  companionship 
of  the  two  species  has  never  been  pleasant  to  either. 

But  in  the  summer  of  1896  a  man  named  Carmack, 
now  often  spoken  of  as  McCormick,  was  a  resident 
"squaw-man,"  having  allied  himself  with  a  woman 
of  the  Stick  tribe  some  years  before.  He  was  a  sal- 
mon-catcher, and  not  a  miner ;  and  had  been  led  to 
place  his  nets  at  the  mouth  of  the  Reindeer,  known  to 
him  by  its  Indian  name,  as  stated,  which  sounds  to 
American  ears  as  the  name  is  now  spelled  and  ac- 
cepted. 

Visits  to  the  stream  had  given  Carmack  the  idea 
of  prospecting  it  for  a  chance  find,  and  at  about  the 
time  mentioned  he,  with  some  two  or  three  Indian 
companions,  started  up  the  stream.  Going  up  the 
Reindeer,  or  Klondike,  they  came  to  a  considerable 
tributary  coming  in  on  the  right.  Here  conditions 
seemed  favorable  for  looking  for  gold,  but  they  fol- 
lowed the  smaller  fork  some  twenty-five  miles  before 
they  went  ashore. 

The  results  of  this  unskillful  prospecting  by  men 


32 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


)  % 


who  were  not  accustomed  miners ;  were  to  that  fra- 
ternity tenderfeet  in  fact ;  would  almost  have  turned 
the  head  of  a  hardened  veteran.  For  at  a  depth  of 
only  three  feet  Carmack  found  in  the  low  bars  b':;side 
the  creek  gravel  that  panned  a  dollar  to  the  pound 
of  dirt.  Others  have  since  found  dirt  near  by  that 
panned  ten  dollars  to  the  pound — the  richest  find 
known  in  mining  annals  except  the  cases  of  the  few 
huge  "nuggets"  of  Australia  and  the  Sacramento 
valley  in  California. 

Remote  as  this  discovery  was,  and  lone  and  silent 
as  was  the  wilderness,  it  was  not  long  a  secret.  Then 
happened  the  rush,  first  locally,  resulting  in  the  de- 
populating of  Circle  City  and  other  camps,  and  later 
extending  among  mining  men  by  word  of  mouth, 
finally  including  nearly  every  man  who  had  gone 
north  into  that  region  before  the  discovery,  with  the 
general  purpose  only  of  seeing  what  he  could  find. 

At  last  the  world  at  large  was  let  into  the  secret 
by  means  that  have  been  described.  The  stories  of 
gold-finds  are  old.  They  occur  frequently.  Men  pay 
little  attention  to  them.  It  required  the  docking  of 
of  the  battered  Alaska  steamer  at  San  Francisco  on 
July  14th,  and  the  coming  ashore  of  the  men  who 
wore  upon  their  weather-beaten  faces,  and  displayed 
in  their  clothing  and  their  rude  belongings,  the  fact 
that  they  were  Argonauts ;  returned  adventurers  from 
a  strange  land  who  had  come  laden  with  comparatively 
vast  sums. 

Then  over  all  the  wires  passed  the  news  :  ' '  They 
were  weatherbeaten    and    ragged,   and    looked  like 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


33 


tramps,  but  they  brought  with  them  nearly  a  million 
dollars  in  gold-dust  washed  from  the  sands  of  tue  most 
marvelous  mining  district  the  world  has  known.  An 
average  of  $25,000  each  was  their  record  for  a  few 
months'  exile  in  the  far  north." 

These  were  the  words  that  were  read  by  perhaps 
ten  millions  of  persons  before  nine  o'clock  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning.  It  was  a  statement  of  fact,  and  not 
an  estimate,  a  rumor  or  a  guess.  And  almost  in- 
stantly thousands  of  those  readers  knew  that  they 
themselves  wanted  to  go  to  the  Klondike.  They  knew 
nothing  of  the  details,  the  climave,  the  scene,  the 
journey,  the  cost,  the  toil,  the  uncertainty.  These 
facts  always  come  more  slowly  afterwards.  Let  us 
see  what  some  of  them  are  now. 

A  lady  teacher  connected  with  a  missionary  enter- 
prise writes  thus  from  Circle  City,  in  a  letter  dated  in 
February,  1897,  ^^'^  printed  in  a  public  journal : 

.  .  .  ."  We  have  had  but  three  mails  in  the  six 
months  I  have  spent  here,  and  if  this  letter  does  not 
leave  inside  of  a  month  there  will  be  no  opportunity 
to  send  it  out  until  next  July.  It  took  our  last  mail 
just  three  months  to  travel,  with  dog-team,  over  the 
nine  hundred  miles  from  Juneau,  Alaska— our  nearest 
'  civilized  '  town — to  Circle  City." 

With  reference  to  the  two  routes,  mentioned  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  this  writer  says  : 

' '  The  miners  prefer  to  reach  the  gold  fields  here 
by  coming  over  this  trail  from  Juneau,  but  I  preferred 
to  come  all  the  way  from  Puget  Sound  by  steamer ; 
wp  through  the  North  Pacific  and  Bering  Sea  to  the 


;w 


THE  KLONDIKE, 


I  !  i 


■  i :  I 


mouth  of  the  \ukon  river,  and  then  fifteen  hundred 
miles  up  the  river — in  all  a  two  months'  trip." 

She  touches  upon  the  personal  experiences  which 
seem  small  at  a  distance  and  are  large  in  actual  con- 
tact, and  which  show  something,  a  good  deal  perhaps, 
of  the  actual  conditions  of  the  country  and  the 
journey.     She  says : 

"  Steaming  up  the  Yukon  is  interesting  .  .  .  . 
but  whenever  the  boat  stops  to  take  on  wood,  to  trade 
with  the  natives,  or  is  laid  up  on  the  ever-present 
sand-bar,  it  is  immediately  taken  possession  of  by 
these  little  pests  (the  mosquitoes)  ....  When 
the  passengers  see  that  the  boat  is  about  to  stop  a 
wild  rush  is  made  for  the  staterooms,  and  bags  made 
of  mosquito-netting  or  cheese-cloth  are  quickly  drawn 
down  over  hat,  head  and  shoulders." 

Referring  to  the  strange  eflfects  of  latitude  she 
says : 

"  During  the  shortest  days  we  have  Lnit  little  more 

than  two  hours  of  daylight Lamps  are 

lighted  in  the  school-room  at  half-paac  one,  and  I  go 
to  school  in  the  morning  long  before  daylight." 

She  refers  to  Circle  City  as  ' '  the  largest  log-house 
town  in  the  world,"  to  the  strange  ideas  of  Indians 
and  half-breeds,  and  finally  states  certain  facts  about 
climate,  thus : 

"This  is  an  unusually  mild  winter  (winter  of 
1896-97)  on  the  upper  Yukon.  Fifty-four  degrees 
below  zero  is  the  coldest  yet  registered  by  the  stand- 
ard thermometers,  while  the  average  has  been  twenty- 
eight  below.     It  is  a  dry  cold,   with   no  wind  or 


A 


■.'.'j,"m.<jL*','ewiwi  1 


THE  NEW  GOLD  EIEIJ)S  OF  ALASKA. 


.•{5 


drifting  snow  until  the  present  month.  During  the 
first  part  of  the  winter  riding  after  a  team  of  from 
four  to  twelve  dogs  was  the  pnncipal  amusement. 
But  suddenly  all  our  men  got  the  Klondike  fever, 
and  dogs  became  too  valuable  to  be  used  as  play- 
things. Where  a  man  can  take  a  pan  and  wash  out 
twenty-five  dollars  worth  of  gold-dust  in  ten  minutes, 
no  wonder  those  who  hear  of  it  get  the  fever.  It  is  a 
common  sight  to  see  a  man  and  a  dog  harnessed  to- 
gether to  a  sled  loaded  with  provisions  and  blankets, 
and  starting  out  on  the  two-hundred-and- forty  mile 
tramp  through  the  snow  and  cold  to  Klondike.  A 
hundred  dollars  is  a  small  price  to  pay  for  a  poor, 
wolfish-looking  dog.     Some  Indians  rent  their  dogs, 

getting  a  dollar  a  day  for  each Now 

that  the  dogs  are  gone  some  of  us  have  taken  to  snow- 
shoes  for  exercise.     The  web  snowshoes,  and  not  the 

Norwegian  '  ski '  are  used  here " 

As  has  been  shown  by  comparative  statements 
gathered  from  statistics,  the  gold-find  of  the  Klon- 
dike is  of  incomparable  richness.  But  the  strange- 
ness of  the  circumstances  does  not  end  here.  The 
attractive  wealth  is  found  under  peculiar  mining  con- 
ditions. The  ground  freezes  to  a  depth  of  sixteen  to 
eighteen  feet.  It  is  a  bleak,  barren,  mountainous 
land,  the  shores  of  the  Yukon  from  Circle  City  up 
being  especially  rugged.  Southwestern  and  southern 
Alaska  are  forest  countries  ;  in  the  Klondike  region, 
above  the  log-house  metropolis,  timber  is  scarce.  The 
gold-bearing  gravel  does  not  lie  on  the  surface,  and 
the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  sink  a  well  through  the 


36 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


\  \ 


I  I 


\  '•- 


I 

! 


!    • 


overlying  earth  down  to  the  gravel.  In  the  earlier 
finds  the  wells  were  sunk  only  about  three  feet.  But 
richer  finds  afterwards  made  were  found  at  a  depth  of 
twelve  to  eighteen  feet. 

The  brief  summer  sun  never  thaws  the  ground 
entirely  more  than  a  few  inches  below  the  surface, 
and  the  extreme  cold  of  the  quick-coming  winter  re- 
freezes  only  a  thin  layer.  To  sink  a  well,  or  shaft,  a 
fire  is  first  built  ou  the  ground,  and  kept  burning 
many  hours.  Then,  in  the  partially  softened  eiirth 
the  shaft  is  sunk.  When  the  gravel,  the  pay-dirt,  is 
reached,  it  is  taken  out  and  piled  in  the  open  air,  no 
aitempt  being  made  to  wash  it ;  except  perhaps  the 
washing  of  a  few  panfuls  to  ascertain  if  "it  be  worth 
while  to  continue  the  digging ;  until  the  thaw  of  the 
coming  summer  shall  have  fiurnished  water  for  the 
sluices  or  cradles.  The  washing  and  panning  out 
must  necessarily  be  done  during  the  brief  summer, 
though  where,  after  the  gravel  is  reached,  it  can  be 
worked  by  tunneling  laterally  from  the  shaft,  it  is 
possible,  of  course,  to  work  eighteen  feet  under 
ground  and  below  the  frosts,  even  in  the  arctic  mid- 
winter, and  continue  to  take  out  gravel  beneath  or  in 
the  frozen  ground.  Still,  :he  hoisting  would  necessi- 
tate work  out-of-doors  at  the  surface,  and  the  v<;ry 
little  we  know  of  real  cold  throughout  the  United 
States  is  still  sufficient  to  cause  us  to  believe  that  a 
man  cannot  labor  in  a  temperature  of  sixty  to  eighty 
degrees  below  zero.  It  will  be  safe,  at  least  for  the 
present,  to  regard  the  mining  season  in  Alaska  as 
consisting  of  not  more  than  one  hundred  days  in  a 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


37 


vcar  If  ever  it  grows  longer  it  will  be  through  arti- 
ficial appliances  in  the  way  of  shelter  which  now 
seem  impossible. 


MAN-AND-DOG  TBAM. 


38 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


When,  under  the  most  favorable  circumrtances,  the 
gravel  is  lifted  out,  it  is  in  frozen  masses  unless  found 
at  a  depth  of  about  eighteen  feet  or  more,  and  resem- 
bles broken  concrete.  A  man  who  strikes  pay-dirt  at 
a  distance  from  the  surface  less  than  this  has  the 
pleasure  of  picking  and  shoveling  in  frozen  earth  all 
the  time,  winter  or  summer.  Water  to  use  in  pans 
and  sluices  is,  for  the  same  reason,  imp  )ssible  during 
three-fourths  of  the  year,  because  it  is  all  frozen. 
There  is  only  one  advantage.  The  gold  found  is  all 
called  "dust,"  but  little  or  none  of  it  is  really  that 
at  the  Klondike.  It  is  found  in  nuggets  and  flakes 
that  can  be  often  picked  out  with  the  fingers  to  a  large 
extent.  Only  a  few  of  these,  of  course,  need  be  found 
to  make  the  diggings  pay,  but  the  dirt  is  all  usually 
washed.  There  is  no  sign  o^  volcanic  action,  no  com- 
mingling of  the  gold  with  other  metals  as  is  usually 
the  case.  If  the  gold  is  there  at  all  it  is  unmistak- 
able— dull  yellow,  visible  to  a  large  extent,  and  almost 
of  refinery  purity. 

Even  the  pay-dirt  differs  from  other  gold-bearing 
gravel.  It  is  of  an  almost  inky  blackness.  It  lies 
there  upon  the  bed-rock,  unlike  anything  that  can 
anywhere  be  found  on  the  surface.  It  does  not  be- 
long there,  and  came  from  a  distance  and  place  un- 
known —  a  place  which,  if  a  man  should  find  it,  would 
make  him  the  richest  person  the  world  has  ever 
known. 

It  requires  sixty-two  Troy  ounces  of  gold  of  the 
usual  fineness  of  dust  or  nuggets  to  make  the  value  of 
one  thousand  dollars.     A  pan  of  dirt  weighs  about 


M 


THE  NFAV  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


:«> 


twenty-five  pounds.  It  has  been  told  and  believed 
that  this  sum  has  been  frequently  washed  from  a  single 
panful.  If  this  is  true  it  means  ili^t  that  there  is  dirt 
at  Klondike  about  one-sixth  of  whose  mass  by  weight 
is  gold.  If  it  is  true  every  reader  of  these  lines  should 
understand  that  such  instances  are  like  those  of  find- 
ing some  one  of  the  great  nuggets  of  California  and 
Australian  history,  at  least  one  of  which,  in  a  solid 
lump,  was  worth  twenty  thousand  dollars.  Those  of 
a  bigness  making  them  worth  two  to  five  thousand 
dollars  have  been  found  in  perhaps  two  score  in- 
stances. But  the  world  understands  that  such  finds 
do  not  indicate  even  the  general  richness  of  a  placer 
field.  In  scattered  nuggets  and  lumps  and  flakes  in  a 
panful,  the  case  is  different  and  yet  the  same. 

rut  many  tales  have  reached  civilization  that 
CO  rii:  v-."hin  the  verge  of  belief  without  a  call  upon 
rcH'V'i.  \  So  far  as  the  present  excitement  is  con- 
cer at  i  i'ley  apply  to  the  Klondike  fields  alone. 
Stories  .  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  dollars  to 
the  pan  are  common.  Immense  sums  have  .already 
been  brought  from  there  without  any  questior. — sums 
at  least  that  are  immense  when  considered  ir.  relation 
to  the  small  number  of  men  who  thus  far  have 
worked  that  field  during  one  brief  summer.  For  the 
iiterest  that  now  prevails  there  is  full  and  justifiable 
.:awse,  though  all  the  facts  may  mean  when  sifted  sim- 
\A3  i jis ;  that  a  new  and  rich  gold  field  of  unknown 
extent  and  undefined  limits  has  been  discovered  ;  that 
it  is  so  far  as  known  a  placer-field,  or  poor  man's  min- 
ing ground;  that  the  region  in  which  it  lies  is  new  to 


i  il 


'  I 


hESP^^ 


FROZEN   PAY  DIRT. 


THE  MEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


41 


f 


the  miDtng  world  in  all  its  conditions,  and  that  it  is  a 
field  difficult  in  the  extreme. 

Yet  if  you  ask  a  man  who  knew  the  difficulties 
and  was  a  partaker  in  the  hardships  of  'Forty-nine,  you 
will  find  him  smilling  at  all  the  perils  and  hardships 
of  Alaska  save  one — the  eternal  cold. 

The  road  he  traveled  in  his  time  to  reach  the 
scene  of  his  dreams  and  hopes  was  as  difficult  as  this. 
If  every  convenience  and  necessity  of  human  life  is 
wanting  now  at  Klondike,  so  were  they  in  early  Cali- 
fornia. If  youth  and  strength  and  courage  con- 
quered then,  they  will  conquer  now. 

The  climate  of  California,  and  outdoor  life  and 
work,  saved  many  a  puny  life,  and  gave  a  lease  upon 
length  of  days  and  pleasant  memories.  The  climate 
of  Alaska  is  equally  sure — to  kill.  The  scarcity  and 
price  of  lumber,  the  difficulties  of  transportation,  the 
rude  methods  of  life,  the  absence  of  statute  law,  the 
forlorn  need  of  woman  and  home — all  these  have 
their  remedy  in  time  and  the  instincts  of  the  Saxon 
race.  That  which  is  offered  for  consideration  by 
whomsoever  wants  to  go  for  gold  now  is  something 
time  and  energy  and  race-instincts  cannot  remedy. 
I^t  us  be  plain.  It  is  .sotnething  no  sane  man  will 
risk  or  undertake  save  fcr  one  great  stake  —  gold. 
It  is  in  that  light  that  the  question  should  be  consid- 
icd. 


Ill 


CHAPTER  V. 

PROSPECTS    AND    CONCLUSIONS. 

It  is  in  a  sense  absurd  that  the  name  "  Klondike," 
should  be  imagined  to  include  all,  or  even  a  very  con- 
siderable pare,  of  the  mining  territory  of  an  immense 
country.  The  visit  of  Carmack  to  his  future  fortune 
was  in  a  sense  a  mere  accident.  Glacial,  volcanic,  or 
other  geological  action  does  not  take  place  in  a  limited 
territory,  and  it  is  a  conceaed  fact  that  the  gold-bear- 
ing gravel  found  at  Klondike  does  not  belong  to  the 
region  by  original  and  undisturbed  deposit. 

Many  times  since  the  news  of  the  extraordinary 
find  went  to  the  world  it  has  been  mentr  \ed  that 
there  were  scores  of  tributaries,  large  and  small,  run- 
ning into  the  great  valley  of  the  Yukon.  There  exists 
no  reason  why  some  of  them,  many  of  them,  may  not 
have  borne  down  and  spread  out  and  deposited  in  ages 
past  the  same  strange  black  gravel,  bearing  in  greater 
or  less  richness,  the  alluring  grains  of  gold.* 


♦The  theory  of  a  Mother  Lode  intrudes  itself  upon  all  theories. 
If  glaciers  wore  away  the  lode  by  grinding,  they  may  have  carried  it  all 
downward  iu  their  course  so  that  nothing  is  left  of  the  mother  lode. 
If  water  alone  did  it,  the  process  was  moie  gradual,  but  may  be  fully  as 
complete.  But  it  is  not  likely  that  in  either  case  the  action  was  limited. 
We  must  regard  the  Klondike  as  an  instance  merely,  and  that  a  repetition 
of  that  case  is  very  likely  to  be  found.  If  it  should  be  repeated  elsewhere 
mankind  will  be  likely  to  conclude  that  alt  the  gold  discoveries  of  the  past 
are  unimportant  by  comparison. 

4a 


THE  NE IV  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ylLASk'A. 


43 


The  Klondike  fields  lie  without  question  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  There  is  no  question  of  the 
prompt  action  of  that  government  with  respect  to 
revenue.  Almost  all  the  miners  are  Americans. 
They  come,  take  and  carry  away — as  indeed  foreign 
miners  have  always  done  in  this  country  —  without 
paying  tax  or  royalty  of  any  description  to  a  country 
jealous  and  exacting  in  proportion  to  the  physical 
size  of  her  civilization,  and  with  a  large  national  debt. 
Measures  have  already  been  taken  that  must  result 
either  in  disturbance  more  or  less  prolonged,  or  in 
taxation  submitted  to  and  then  retaliated  against,  or 
in  rejection  by  the  miners  with  displays  of  hostility  in 
various  forms. 

There  is  not  intended  here  any  prophesy  of  polit- 
ical changes  or  new  boundary  lines,  though  it  is  use- 
less to  deny  that  if  the  Klondike  region  during  the 
coming  summer  continues  to  yield  in  anything  like 
the  richness  so  far  shown,  the  chance  of  decided  action 
in  resistance  of  Canadian  revenue  measures  do  not 
grow  small  with  the  prospect. 

Rather,  attention  is  meant  to  be  called  to  the  fact 
that  gold  mining  is  most  undoubtedly  not  confined  to 
the  Klondike. 

All  the  lodes  of  the  British  possessions  which  lie 
east  of  the  boundary  seem  to  lead  into  Alaska.  The 
Pelly  and  the  I>wis  or  Porcupine  rivers  make  the 
Yukon,  joining  in  eastern  Alaska  after  rising  in 
British  territory,  and  wherever  the  tributaries  of  those 
streams  have  been  prospected  gold  in  greater  or  lesser 
quantities  has  been  found  ;   Forty- Mile  creek,  Sixty- 


44 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


Mile  creek  and  Birch  creek  for  instances.  The  remote 
headwaters  of  all  these  streams  are  in  the  same  group 
of  mountains,  the  area  of  which  is  perhaps  a  thou- 
sand miles.  This  group  is  almost  entirely  unex- 
plored ;  its  comparatively  minute  features  are  not 
known.  It  lies  largely  within  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  and  is  probably  all  yet  to  be  found 
rich  in  gold.  The  country  farther  north  belongs  to 
the  same  mountain  range.  It  is  entirely  likely  that 
the  Klondike  is  only  one  instance,  and  it  is  certain 
that  after  late  developments  there,  there  is  no  accessi- 
ble spot  in  Alaska  that  will  remain  long  unknown. 

The  Yukon  valley  is  one  of  the  most  desolate  coun- 
tries on  earth.  Even  the  natives  avoid  it  and  perma- 
nently live  in  it  only  in  small  numbers.  The  run- 
ning salmon  is  its  only  certain  dependence.  It  will 
be  very  fortunate  if  gold  iu  richness  half  as  great  as 
that  of  the  Klondike  can  be  found  elsewhere  in  a  less 
desolate  region.  It  will  in  reality  pay  better,  and  it 
is  now  almost  a  necessity  that  if  such  places  exist 
they  shall  be  found.  It  must  be  seen  upon  reflection 
that  one  s*ream  on  the  upper  Yukon  cannot  contain 
room  for  the  claims  even  of  those  who  are  already  on 
the  way,  waiting  at  Seattle  or  elsewhere,  and  destined 
to  swarm  over  that  limited  territory  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment  during  the  coming  year. 

H.  C.  Mcintosh  is  governor  of  the  British  North- 
West  Territory.  On  a  visit  to  Seattle  he  is  reported 
to  have  made  for  publication  the  following  statement 
in  regard  to  the  gold  future  of  that  immense  country, 
including  Alaska.     He  said  : 


-'IWWIU'lkJ.l  ,!.H'.;,'.J.-ggl» 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


45 


Ite 

»P 


' '  We  are  only  on  the  threshold  of  the  greatest  dis- 
covery ever  made.  Gold  has  been  piling  up  in  all 
these  innumerable  streams  for  hundreds  of  years. 
Much  of  the  territory  the  foot  of  man  has  never  trod. 
It  would  hardly  be  possible  for  one  to  exaggerate  the 
richness,  not  only  of  the  Klondike,  .ut  of  other  dis- 
tricts in  the  Canadian  Yukon.  At  the  same  time  the 
folly  of  thousands  rushing  in  there  without  proper 
means  of  subsistence  and  utter  ignorance  of  geograph- 
ical conditions  of  the  country  should  be  kept  ever  in 
mind. 

"There  are  fully  nine  thousand  miles  of  these 
golden  waterways  in  the  region  of  the  Yukon.  Riv- 
ers, creeks  and  streams  of  every  size  and  description 
are  all  rich  in  gold.  I  derived  this  knowledge  from 
many  old  Hudson  Bay  explorers,  who  assured  me 
that  they  considered  the  gold  next  to  inexhaustible. 

"In  1894  I  made  a  report  to  Sir  John  Thompson, 
then  premier  of  Canada,  who  died  the  same  year, 
strongly  urging  that  a  body  of  Canadian  police  be 
established  on  the  river  to  maintain  order.  This  was 
done  in  1895,  and  the  British  outpost  of  Fort  Cudahy 
was  found. 

"I  have  known  gold  to  exist  there  since  1889, 
consequent  upon  a  report  made  to  be  by  W.  O'Gilvie, 
the  government  explorer.  Many  streams  that  will  no 
doubt  prove  to  be  as  rich  as  the  Klondike  have  not 
been  explored  or  prospected.  Among  these  I  might 
mention  Dominion  creek,  Hootalinqua  river,  Stewart 
river,  Liard  river  and  a  score  of  other  streams  com- 
paratively unknown." 


40 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


Some  scientific  men  who  have  visited  and  partly 
explored  the  country  give  it  as  their  opinion — and 
most  of  them  under  the  present  pressure  have  given 
their  views  to  the  public— that  the  gold-bearing 
gravel  was  carried  to  its  present  known  place  by 
glacial  action,  and  not  by  river  current.  One  of  these, 
Dr.  Everett,  a  mining  expert,  says  that  the  summer 
of  the  region  is  worse  than  the  winter,  and  that  the 
general  effect  of  the  climate  upon  the  average  resi- 
dent of  the  temperate  zone  is  such  that  two  years  is  as 
much  as  can  be  endured.  There  are,  however,  state- 
ments to  the  contrary.  He  also  says  that  what  min- 
ers there  now  regard  as  bed-rock,  upon  which  the 
gold-bearing  gravel  rests,  is  a  false  bed-rock,  and  that 
underneath  there  is  still  another  bed  rock,  with 
larger  lumps  of  gold  than  are  found  on  the  first.  He 
says  that  the  country  in  the  interior,  back  of  the 
Klondike,  will  furnish  enormous  quantities  of  gold, 
and  the  finds  already  made  are  but  a  small  beginning. 
The  district,  Dr.  Everett  thinks,  will  prove  to  be 
about  three  hundred  mile?  square — about  one  thou- 
sand square  miles. 

Daring  these  summer  months,  even  at  the  moment 
of  this  writing,  search  is  making  for  new  trails  and 
passes  bj^  the  overland  route  from  Seattle  to  Juneau 
and  northward  —  a  route  that  by  latest  accounts  is 
in  round  numbers  about  one-half  the  distance  as  com- 
pared with  the  sea  and  Yukon  journey.  An  advan- 
tage found  in  it  is  that  a  man  may  carry  what  he 
pleases  and  is  able  to.  The  White  Pass,  at  first  men- 
tioned merely  as  a  possibility  among  three,  is  now 


THE  NEW  HOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.        47 

being  used  by  an  unknown  number  of  hardy  men 
whose  education  in  mountain  climbing  has  been 
acquired  in  the  past  thirty  years  in  our  own  west. 
The  distance  to  the  Klondike  from  the  head  of  the 
sound  overland  is  about  seven  hundred  miles  —  much 
less  than  that  started  upon  without  hesitation  thirty- 
five  years  ago,  from  the  western  edge  of  the  plains  to 
California. 


It  may  be  said  that  so  far  as  the  Klondike  is  con- 
cerned work  after  September  fifteenth  must  be  post- 
poned for  at  least  eight  months,  and  that  prospecting 
in  the  winter  is  impossible.  As  has  been  stated, 
the  Klondike  river  has  been  already  staked  for  a 
distance  of  about  thirty  miles,  and  it  is  known  that 
by  winter  at  least  five  thousand  additional  people 
will  have  entered  that  valley  besides  those  who  must 
wait.  No  fortune  can  be  made  this  year,  no  matter 
how  near  it  may  lie.  A  man  does  not  go  for  the 
purpose  of  working  for  somebody  else  ;  he  wants  to 
work  his  own  claim.  He  must  find  one,  and  it  must 
pay. 

Common  sense  shows  that  this  year's  work  is  over, 
but  another  year  is  coming — a  year  in  which  the 
Klondike  may  fade  into  insignificance,  and  other  and 
wider  fields  may  be  the  objects  of  the  journey.  The 
public  disposition  is  to  be  there  in  time  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  first  developments  that  must  occur  unless 
the  present  excitement  is  destined  to  die  out  and  all 
who  are  there,  or  who  go,  will  be  glad  to  return  if 
they  survive. 


48 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


But  there  is  a  feature  of  all  mining  hiitory  that 
ought  to  be  remembered,  and  yet  which  never  is.  It 
has  periods.  The  first  is  that  of  excitement  and  wild 
haste,  of  abandoning  claims  and  taking  up  others,  of 
an  entire  want  of  persistence.  The  idea  is  that  min- 
ing is  a  gamble,  and  not  an  industry. 

Nevertheless,  if  there  is  a  mining  future  for  Alaska 
it  must  come  through  persistent  work,  for  that  is  true 
of  every  mining  country.  The  man  who  finally  wins 
is  he  who,  having  found  a  claim  that  is  good,  that  it 
pays  to  work,  sticks  to  it.  Want  of  occupation  is 
the  form  that  poverty  and  despair  have  taken  in  these 
United  States  now  these  six  years.  A  wild  rushing 
from  diggings  to  diggings  in  Alaska  and  the  British 
possessions  will  not  help  this  persistent  situation  at 
home. 

It  is  certain  that  no  power  on  earth  can  put  a 
pause  upon  the  tide  that  is  now  setting  northward. 
Under  the  spur  of  necessity  in  thousands  of  cases, 
conservatism  and  calm  judgment  are  put  aside.  Of 
the  thousands  who  will  go,  a  large  proportion  will 
reach  the  fields,  and  of  those  a  few — comparatively  a 
very  few — will  return  with  shining  rewards.  Disap- 
pointment awaits  the  many  in  Alaska  as  elsewhere. 
It  is  a  long,  and  perilous,  and  costly  journey  at  best. 
How  infinitely  better  it  would  be  before  starting  at  all 
to  fix  in  the  mind  the  idea  that  fair  success  is  better 
than  none  at  all,  and  that  it  is  persistency^  not  luck, 
that  finally  wins,  in  mining  as  in  all  things  else. 

The  present  Condition  of  the  mining  laws  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  constitute  an  item  of  interest. 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


49 


Duties  have  always  been  collected  under  those 
laws  wherever  the  means  was  at  hand  for  so  colllect- 
ing.  A  miner's  personal  property  is  subject  to  this 
tariff,  including  his  kit  of  tools. 

Early  in  July  the  question  of  excluding  foreign 
miners  entirely  was  debated,  but  that  measure  was  not 
taken. 

But  on  July  27th  a  measure  was  adopted  by  the 
Canadian  Council  at  Ottawa  which  is  now  the  law. 
Under  this  regulation  a  royalty  is  levied  upon  all  the 
products  of  placer  claims  in  Dominion  territory,  no 
matter  by  whom  held  or  worked.  This  royalty  is  ten 
per  centum  upon  all  amounts  taken  out  of  any  one 
claim  up  to  five  hundred  dollars  a  week.  Claims 
paying  any  returns  less  than  that  sum  per  week  must 
pay  a  royalty  of  twenty  per  centum. 

In  addition  to  this  every  alternate  claim  is  reserved 
as  the  property  of  the  Government,  and  must  not  be 
occupied  or  worked  by  individuals. 

In  these  provisions  no  distinction  is  made  between 
Canadians  and  citizens  of  other  countries. 

Measures  have  been  taken  to  strengthen  and 
largely  augment  the  Canadian  constabulary  at  and 
near  the  gold  fields,  and  to  collect  the  revenue  that 
may  fall  due  under  the  law  mentioned,  and  from  the 
imports  of  new  arrivals.  A  system  of  overseeing 
the  working  of  every  claim,  so  as  to  prevent  avoidance 
or  concealment  of  the  values  taken  out,  must  neces- 
sarily follow. 

Every  American  or  other  miner  not  a  Canadian 
should  remember  that  the  Dominion  has  a  right  to 


i  TJ!  .: 


ill 


in 


!!  S 


1     i 


50 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


make  these  or  any  other  regulations  in  her  own  terri- 
tory. 

The  idea  that  there  is  any  disputed  territory,  or 
boundary  line,  north  of  Mt.  St.  Elias  is  a  mistake. 
The  undecided  line  is  far  south  of  the  Klondike,  and 
refers  to  a  portion  of  the  panhandle  of  Alaska.  Dyea 
is  now  said  to  be  in  the  disputed  territory. 

The  mininjj  laws  of  the  United  States  are  embod- 
ied in  the  following  brief  oi"  the  statutes  bearing  upon 
that  subject. 

The  term  "placer  claim,"  as  defined  by  the  su- 
preme court  of  the  United  States,  is:  "Ground 
wi  tin  defined  boundaries  which  contains  mineral  i^ 
its  earth,  sand  or  gravel;  ground  that  includes  valu- 
able deposits  not  in  pl&ce,  that  is,  not  fixed  in  rock, 
but  which  are  in  a  loose  state,  and  mi^y  in  most  cases 
be  collected  by  washing  or  amalgamation  without 
milling." 

The  manner  of  locating  placer  mining  claims  dif- 
fers from  that  of  locating  claims  upon  veins  or  lodes. 
In  locating  a  vein  or  lode  claim,  the  United  States 
statutes  provide  that  no  claim  ':nall  extend  more  than 
300  feet  on  each  side  of  the  middle  of  the  vein  at  the 
surface,  and  that  no  claim  shall  be  limited  by  mining 
regulations  to  less  than  25  feet  on  each  side  of  the 
middle  of  the  vf  :n  at  the  surface.  In  locating  claims 
called  ' '  placers, ' '  however,  the  law  provides  that  no 
location  of  such  claitn  upon  surveyed  lands  shall  in- 
clude more  than  twenty  acres  for  each  individual 
claimant.    Tl;e   supreme  court,  l^owever,  has  held 


THE  NEW  COLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


f)! 


that  one  individual  caa  hold  as  many  locations  as  he 
can  purchase  and  rely  upon  his  possessory  title  taht  ; 
a  separate  patent  for  each  location  is  unnecessary. 

lyocaters,  however,  hav^  to  show  proof  of  citizen- 
ship or  intention  to  become  citizens.  This  may  be 
done  in  the  case  of  an  individual  by  his  own  affidavit; 
in  the  case  of  an  association  incorporated  by  a  num- 
ber individnzls  by  the  affidavit  of  their  authorized 
agent,  made  on  his  own  knowledge  or  upon  informa- 
tion and  belief  ;  and  in  the  case  of  a  company  organ- 
ized under  the  laws  of  any  state  or  territory,  by  the 
filling  of  a  certified  copy  of  the  charter  or  certificate 
of  incorporation. 

A  patent  for  any  land  claimed  and  located  may  be 
obtained  in  the  following  manner:  "Any  person, 
association  or  corporation  authorized  to  locate  a  claim, 
t  "^ving  claimed  and  located  a  piece  of  land,  and  who 
has  or  hsive  complied  with  the  terms  of  the  law,  may 
file  in  the  proper  land  office  an  application  for  a  patent 
under  oath,  showing  such  compliance,  together  with 
a  plat  i'ld  field  notes  of  the  claim  or  claims  in  com- 
mon made  by  or  under  the  direction  of  the  Unitt  i 
vStates  surveyor  general,  showing  accurately  .he 
boundaries  of  the  claim  or  claims,  which  shall  be 
distinctly  marked  by  monuments  on  the  ground,  and 
shall  post  a  copy  of  such  plat,  together  with  a  notice 
of  such  application  for  a  potent,  in  a  conspicuous  place 
on  the  land  embraced  io  such  plat,  previous  to  the 
application  for  a  patent  on  such  plat ;  and  shall  file  an 
affidavit  of  at  least  two  persons  that  such  notice  has 
been  duly  posted,  and  shall  file  a  copy  of  the  notice  in 


ir.02»7 


Fir 


ill: 


1 1 


52 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


such  land  office  ;  and  shall  thereupon  be  entitled  to  a 
patent  to  the  land  i:?  the  manner  following :  The  regis- 
trar of  said  land  office  upon  the  filing  of  such  applica- 
tion, plat,  field  notes,  notices  and  affidavits,  shall 
publish  a  notice  that  such  application  has  been  made, 
for  a  period  of  sixty  days,  in  a  newspaper  to  be  by  him 
designated,  as  published  nearest  to  such  claim ;  and 
shall  post  such  notice  in  his  office  for  the  same  period. 
The  claimant  at  the  time  of  filing  such  application,  or 
at  any  time  thereafter,  within  sixty  days  of  publication, 
shall  file  with  the  registrar  a  certificate  of  the  United 
States  surveyor  general  that  $500  worth  of  labor  has 
been  expended  or  improvements  made  upon  the  claim 
by  himself  or  grantors  ;  that  the  plat  is  correct,  with 
such  further  description  by  reference  to  natural  objects 
or  permanent  monuments  as  shall  ilenti^y  the  claim 
and  furnish  an  accurate  description  to  be  incorporated 
in  the  patent.  At  the  expiration  of  the  sixty  days  of 
publication,  the  claimant  shall  file  his  affiaavit  show- 
ing that  the  plat  and  notice  have  been  posted  in  a  con- 
spicuous place  on  the  claim  during:  such  period  of 
publication." 

If  no  adsrerse  claim  shall  have  been  filed  with  the 
registrar  of  the  land  office  at  the  expiration  of  said  sixty 
days,  the  claimant  is  entitled  to  a  patent  upon  the  pay- 
ment to  the  proper  officer  of  $5  per  acre  in  the  case  of 
a  lode  claim,  and  $2,50  per  acre  for  a  placer. 

The  location  of  a  placer  claim  and  keeping  posses- 
sion thereof  until  a  patent  shall  be  issued  arc  subject 
to  local  laws  and  customs. 


SUPPLEMENTARY. 

Topography  of  the  Klondike. — ^The  actual 
topography  of  the  Klondi'^e  diggings  may  interest 
many  persons.  The  map  V>elow  shows  this  in  outline. 
While  the  Klondike — named  on  ajl  charts  Reindeer 
river — is  an  affluent  of  the  Yukon,  the  stream  itself 
is  not  worked,  and  the  gold  has  so  far  been  found  in 
smaller  streams  running  into  it ;  as  the  Bonanza, 
Bear  creek,  Twelve-Mile  creek,  etc.  The  direction  of 
the  Yukon  as  shown  is  not  the  general  course  of  that 
river,  but  a  bend  to  the  southward  where  the  )u- 
dike  enters.  The  map  is  a  mere  outline  drawn  by  a 
miner,  serving  mainly  to  show  how  extensive  the 
locations  are  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Klondike,  on 
those  of  Indian  river,  and  on  Hunker  creek  and  else- 
where. 

It  seems  at  least  to  illustrate  the  fact  that  it  will 
be  necessary,  as  remarked  in  a  previous  chapter,  to 
find  new  diggings  for  the  largely  increased  mining 
population  which  will  appear  on  the  ground  in  the 
summer  of  1898.  It  is  recommended  to  all  who  go  to 
bear  this  fact  in  mind,  and  for  reasons  also  heretofore 
given,  to  find  locations  if  possible  west  of  the  bound- 
ary line  and  on  American  soil. 


The  Question  of  Location. — Bearing  upon  this 
question  of  location  is  the  opinion  of  General  Duffield, 
Superintendent  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  survey  r 


58 


I 


1   <■'  9' 


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o 

o 

« 


o 

►4 
Ui 

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a: 
f^ 

u. 
o 

< 

K 
O 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELI>S  OF  ALASKA. 


55 


'^ 


X 

Ml 


2 
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0 


o 

o 


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c 
o 

w 
o 

w 

X, 
t-< 

D 
C 


who  has  spent  considerable  time  in  Alaska.  He 
expresses  the  opinion  that  a  railroad  easily  can  be 
constructed  from  Taku  Inlet  to  the  Klondike  gold 
fields,  and  believes  that  the  enterprise  will  be  worth 
undertaking  because  of  the  richness  of  the  mines. 

"The  gold,"  said  General  Duffield,  in  discussing 
♦^he  question,  "has  been  ground  out  of  the  quartz 
by  the  pressure  of  the  glacieis,  which  lie  and  move 
along  the  courses  of  the  streams,  exerting  a  tremen- 
dous pressure.  This  force  is  present  to  a  more  appre- 
ciable extent  in  Alaska  than  elsewhere,  and  I  believe 
that  as  a  consequence  more  placer  gold  will  be  found 
in  that  region  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  world." 

General  DufReld  thinks  the  gold  hunters  on  the 
American  side  of  the  line  have  made  the  mistake  of 
prospecting  the  large  streams  instead  of  the  small 
ones.  "When  gold  is  precipitated,"  he  said,  "it 
sinks.  It  does  not  float  far  down  stream.  It  is  there- 
fore to  be  looked  for  along  the  small  creeks  and  about 
the  head  waters  of  the  larger  tributaries  of  the  Yukon. 
There  is,"  he  adds,  "no  reason  why  as  rich  finds  may 
not  be  made  on  the  American  side  of  the  line  as  in  the 
Klondike  district." 


Food  Resources  of  Alaska. — Before  the  gold 
finds  the  immense  territory  of  Alaska  had  attracted 
attention  only  to  its  resources  in  lumber,  fish  and  furs. 
Now  the  question  of  its  inhabitableness  in  the  sense 
of  producing  its  own  supplies  has  become  a  prominent 
one.  While  it  is  conceded  that  the  valley  of  the  upper 
Yukon  is  one  of  the  most  desolate  in  the  world,  it  is 


.56 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


also  known  that  there  are  portions  of  the  country 
where  the  climate  is  milder,  and  valleys  here  and 
there  whose  supplies  may  hereafter  become  of  im- 
mense importance  to  the  mining  portion  of  the  com- 
munity. Pew  persons  are  in  possession  of  even  such 
facts  about  these  resources  as  exist.  Some  of  them 
are  as  follows. 

Dr.  Sheldon  Jackon,  Commissioner  of  Education, 
says : 

' '  The  warmest  friends  of  Alaska  do  not  claim  that 
it  is  rich  in  agricultural  resources,  or  that  it  will  agri- 
culturally bear  comparison  with  the  rich  valleys  of  the 
Mississippi  river  ;  but  they  do  claim  that  while  there 
are  large  areas  of  mountains  and  unproductive  land 
agriculturally,  yet  there  are  valleys  and  plains  where, 
with  suitable  care,  many  of  the  earlier  vegetables, 
fruits  and  grains  can  be  raised. 

"On  Kodiak,  on  adjacent  islands,  and  on  the 
shores  of  Cook's  Inlet,  where  there  are  small  Russian 
Creole  settlements,  they  have  for  three-quarters  of  a 
century  supplied  themselves  with  vegetables  and  pota- 
toes raised  in  their  own  gardens.  During  recent  years 
the  government  and  mission  teachers  in  southeast 
Alaska  have  in  some  instances  had  good  vegetable 
gardens.  In  northern  Alaska,  less  than  one  hundred 
miles  south  of  the  arctic  circle,  the  teachers  of  the 
Swedish  Evangelical  mission  at  Unalaska  in  1891 
cleared  four  acres  of  ground,  on  which  they  raised 
seventy  bushels  of  potatoes.  As  that  region  has  a 
frozen  subsoil  covered  with  a  heavy  coating  of  moss, 
the  removal  of  the  moss  and  the  cultivation  of  the 


ry 
nd 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA         57 

ground  will  cause  the  soil  to  thaw  out  at  a  greater 
depth  than  it  would  otherwise.  So  that  years  of  ci  - 
tivation  will  cause  the  ground  to  yield  much  more 
plentifully  than  wh^  first  cultivated. 

*'  In  1887,  on  the  site  of  Lake  L,abugo,  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Yukon,  over  2,000  miles  from  Bering 
Sea,  a  missionary,  passing  along,  saw  ten  heads  of 
volunteer  wheat,  nearly  ripe,  on  the  22d  of  August,  in 
a  place  where  some  miners  had  camped  the  year  before 
and  dropped  the  seed. 

• '  Not  only  in  the  mild  belt  of  Southern  Alaska, 
but  also  in  the  arctic  and  subarctic  belt  of  northern 
Alaska,  various  wild  berries  grow  and  ripen  in  profu- 
sion (cranberries,  currants,  raspberries,  huckleberries, 
blackberries,  strawberries),  and  there  is  no  question 
that  if  the  government  places  Alaska  on  an  equal  foot- 
ing with  the  other  states  and  territories  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  one  or  more  experimental  stations  it  V7tll 
be  demonstrated  that  sufficient  vegetabies  can  be  .  iised 
for  the  consumption  of  its  people. " 

Reference  was  made  in  a  preceding  chapter,  with 
out  entering  into  details,  to  the  introduction  of  the 
reindeer  into  Alaska,  as  a  domestic  animal.  The  at- 
tempt to  do  this  Las  so  far  proved  very  successful,  the 
introduction  having  been  made  about  three  years  ago 
under  the  auspices  of  the  U.  S.  government.  In  this 
connection  there  are  facts  not  generally  known,  which 
may  help  to  change  the  aspect  of  the  food  supply  of 
the  far  north  very  materially.     Dr.  Jackson  says  : 

"  And  if  there  is  found  a  section  so  far  North  that 


58 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


the  profitable  raising  of  vegetables  and  grains  becomes 
impossible,  that  region  can  be  utilized  by  the  intro- 
duction of  herds  of  domestic  reindeer. 

"Taking  Norway  and  Sweden,  where  complete 
statistics  are  to  be  had,  as  a  basis  of  calculation,  and 
applying  the  same  average  to  Alaska,  it  is  found  the 
country  is  capable  of  sustaining  9,200,000  head  of 
reindeer,  which  will  support  a  population  of  287,500 
living  like  the  Laps  of  Lapland. 

"The  stocking  of  Alaska  with  tame  reindeer 
means  the  opening  up  of  the  vast  and  almost  inaccess- 
ible central  region  of  northern  and  central  Alaska  to 
white  settlers  and  civilization  and  the  opening  up  of  a 
vast  commercial  industry.  Lapland,  with  400,000 
reindeer,  supplies  the  grocery  stores  of  northern  Eu- 
rope with  smoked  reindeer  hams,  smoked  tongues, 
dried  and  tanned  hides,  and  23,000  carcasses  per 
annum  to  the  butcher  shops.  On  the  same  basis, 
Alaska,  with  its  capacity  for  9,200,000  head  of  rein- 
deer, can  supply  the  markets  of  North  America  with 
500,000  carcasses  of  venison  annually,  together  with 
tons  of  delicious  hams  and  tongues  and  finest  leather. 
Surely  the  creation  of  an  industry  worth  from  $83,- 
000,000  to  $100,000,000  where  none  now  exists  is 
worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  American  people." 


Another  Road  to  the  Goi,d  Fields. — The  out- 
line map  printed  herein  shows  a  road  to  the  gold  fields 
additional  to  the  routes  mentioned  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter. By  it  the  traveler  may  reach  these  fields  in  two 
months  from  interior  cities  in  this  country,  possibly 
in  six  weeks. 


■MM 


mm 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


h\) 


The  new  route  is  in  fact  a  very  old  one.  Railroads, 
and  steamers  and  other  water-craft,  almost  cover  the 
route.  But  before  these  were  built  it  was  the  old 
Hudson  Bay  trail  into  the  far  north,  and  had  been  in 
use  nearly  a  century. 

Calgary  is  a  station  on  the  Canadian  Pacific  rail- 
way, the  terminus  of  that  road  being  at  New  West- 
minster, on  the  coast  in  British  Columbia,  opposite 
Vancouver's  Island,  and  about  one  hundred  and 
eighty  miles  above  Seattle.  From  Calgary  a  branch 
road  runs  north  to  Edmonton,  and  from  that  point  to 
Athabasca  I^anding  is  a  stage  or  wagon  ride,  or  ' '  port- 
age" of  about  forty  miles. 

From  Athabasca  to  Fort  McPherson,  which  is  situ- 
ated far  north  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  river, 
there  is  a  continuous  waterway  for  canoe  travel  down 
stream.  At  Fort  McPherson  the  Peel  river  extends 
southwest  into  the  gold  fields.  'From  Edmonton  to 
Fort  McPherson  the  distance  is  1,822  miles. 

There  are  two  portages  of  some  distance  on  this 
route ;  one  already  mentioned  from  Edmonton  to 
Athabasca,  and  at  a  place  called  Smith's  Landing, 
sixteen  miles,  over  which  there  is  a  tramway. 

With  the  exception  of  five  other  portages  of  a  few 
hundred  yards  there  is  a  down-grade  water  route  all 
the  way.  Wherever  there  is  a  lake  or  a  long  stretch 
of  deep-water  navigation  the  Hudson  Bay  company 
has  small  freight  steamers  which  ply  during  the  sum- 
mer months  between  the  portage  points. 

From  Edmonton  a  party  of  three  men  with  a  canoe 
should  reach  Fort  McPherson  within  sixty  days  pro- 


60 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


vided  they  are  strong  and  of  some  experience  in  that 
sort  of  travel. 

Experienced  travelers  recommend  that  the  canoe 
be  bought  at  home  unless  it  be  intended  to  hire  In- 
dians with  large  bark  canoes  for  the  trip.  Birch- 
bark  canoes  can  be  purchased  large  enough  to  carry 
three  tons,  but  are  said  to  be  unreliable  unless  In- 
dians are  taken  along  to  keep  them  from  getting 
water- logged.  The  Hudson  Bay  company  will  con- 
tract to  take  freight  northward  on  their  steamers. 

The  great  advantage  claimed  for  this  inland  route 
is  that  it  has  long  been  an  organized  line  of  communi- 
cation. Travelers  need  not  carry  any  more  food  than 
will  take  them  from  one  Hudson  Bay  post  to  the  next, 
and  there  is  abundance  of  fish  and  wild  fowl  along  the 
route.  They  can  also  get  assistance  at  the  posts  in 
case  of  sickness  or  accident. 

» 

It  is  possible  to  return  by  the  dog-sled  route 
in  the  winter.  There  is  one  mail  to  Fort  McPher- 
3on  in  the  winter.  Dogs  for  teams  can  be  bought  at 
any  of  the  Hudson  Bay  posts  which  form  a  chain  of 
roadhouses  on  the  trip. 

Parties  traveling  alone  will  need  no  guides  until 
they  get  near  Fort  McPherson,  the  route  from  Ed- 
monton being  so  well  defined. 

It  is  estimated  that  a  party  of  three  could  provide 
themselves  with  food  for  the  canoe  trip  of  two  months 
for  $35.  Pork,  tea,  flour  and  baking  powder  would 
suffice. 

Parties  should  consist  of  three  men,  as  that  is  the 
c|rew  of  a  canoe.    It  will  take  600  pounds  of  food  to 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


61 


carry  three  men  over  the  route.  The  paddling  is  all 
done  downstream  except  when  they  turn  south  up 
Peel  river  after  reaching  Fort  Mackenzie,  and  sails 
should  be  taken,  as  there  is  often  a  favorable  wind  for 
days.  There  are  large  scows  on  the  line  manned  by 
ten  men  and  known  as  "sturgeon  heads."  They  are 
like  canal  boats,  but  are  punted  along,  and  are  used 
by  the  Hudson  Bay  people  for  taking  supplies  to 
the  forts. 

This  route  may  be  taken  from  the  northern  inter- 
ior of  this  country  by  going  to  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  by 
rail,  and  there  taking  a  train  over  the  Canadian 
Pacific.  Leaving  St.  Paul  at  9  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, the  international  boundary  at  Portal  will  be 
crossed  at  4  o'clock  the  next  morning.  At  2  :  22  the 
following  morning  the  traveler  will  find  himself  at 
Calgary,  where  he  will  leave  the  main  line  of  the 
Canadian  Pacific  and  travel  to  Edmonton,  where  the 
rail  portion  of  the  journey  ends. 


Laws  Governing  Mining  Ci^aims  in  Ai^aska. — 
On  July  31,  the  misunderstanding  and  contentions 
regarding  the  laws  that  are  applicable  to  Alaska,  so 
far  as  lands  and  claims  are  concerned,  were  set  at  rest 
by  a  statement  made  by  Commissioner  Hermann  of 
the  General  Land  Office.  Many  inquiries  on  this 
question  have  come  to  the  Interior  department,  and 
numerous  applications  have  been  made  for  copies  of 
the  public  land  laws,  which,  however,  do  not  apply  to 
Alaska.  The  general  land  officials  have  therefore 
investigated  the  laws  that  govern  there. 


02 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


The  mineral  land  laws  of  the  United  States,  town- 
site  laws,  which  provide  for  the  incorporation  of  town- 
sites  and  aquirement  of  title  thereto  from  the  United 
States  government  to  the  townsite  trustees  ;  the  law 
providing  for  trade  and  manufactures,  giving  each 
qualified  person  i6o  acres  of  land  in  a  square  and 
compact  form  —  all  these,  with  the  coal- land  regula- 
tions, are  distinct  from  the  mineral  regulations  or 
laws,  and  the  jurisdiction  of  neither  coal  laws  nor 
public  land  laws  extends  to  Alaska,  the  territory 
being  expressly  excluded  by  the  laws  themselves  from 
their  operation. 

The  act  approved  May  17,  1884,  providing  for  the 
civil  government  of  Alaska,  has  this  language  as  to 
mines  and  mining  privileges : 

"  The  law  of  the  United  States  relating  to  mining 
claims  and  rights  incidental  thereto  shall,  on  and  after 
the  passage  of  this  act,  be  in  full  force  and  eflfect  in 
said  district  of  Alaska,  subject  to  such  regulations  as 
may  be  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  ap- 
proved by  the  president,"  and  "parties  who  have 
located  mines  or  mining  privileges  thereon  under  the 
United  States  laws,  applicable  to  the  public  domain, 
or  have  occupied,  or  improved,  or  exercised  acts  of 
ownership  over  such  claims,  shall  not  be  disturbed 
therein,  but  shall  be  allowed  to  perfect  title  by  pay- 
ments provided  for. ' ' 

There  is  still  more  general  authority.  Without 
the  special  authority,  above  quoted,  the  act  of  July  4, 
1866',  says:  "  All  valuable  mineral  deposits  in  lands 
belonging  to  the  United  States,  both  surveyed  and  un- 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


6:^ 


surveyed,  are  hereby  declared  to  be  free  and  open  to 
exploration  and  purchase,  and  lands  in  which  these 
att  found  to  occupation  and  purchase  by  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  and  by  those  who  have  declared  an 
intention  to  become  such,  under  the  rules  prescribed 
by  law,  and  according  to  local  customs  of  rules  of 
miners  in  the  several  mining  districts,  so  far  as  the 
same  are  applicable  and  not  inconsistent  with  the  laws 
of  the  United  States." 

It  will  be  noted  therefore  that  the  general  mining 
'aw  of  the  United  States,  a  brief  of  which  has  been 
given  in  a  previous  chapter,  are  by  the  Acts  above 
quoted  made  applicable  to  Alaska.  There  has  been  a 
misunderstanding  because  of  the  special  exception 
made  of  that  country  by  the  laws  themselves,  until 
those  exceptions  were  set  aside  by  the  Acts  of  July  4, 
1866,  and  May  17,  1874.  It  will  be  remembered, 
also,  that  the  patenting  of  mineral  lands  in  Alaska  is 
not  a  new  thing,  for  that  work  has  been  going  on,  as 
the  cases  have  come  in  from  time  to  time  since  1884. 
The  confusion  arising  from  the  fact  of  Alaska  having 
been  excepted  in  the  action  of  certain  U.  S.  statutes  is 
thus  set  aside,  and  persons  who  now  go,  and  who 
locate  claims  within  U.  S.  territory,  may  be  assured 
that  the  mining  statutes  in  force  elsewhere  also  in 
general  apply  to  Alaska. 


Officiai,  Statement  of  the  Cumate. — Under 
the  direction  of  Secretary  of  Agriculture  James  Wil- 
son, Willis  L.  Moore,  Chief  of  the  Weather  bureau, 
makes  public  tt;e  following  : 


r" 


ft4 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


: 


"The  general  conception  of  Alaskan  climate  is 
largely  due  to  those  who  follow  the  sea,  and  this  is 
not  strange  when  we  consider  the  va:  t  extenr  of  shore 
line  (over  26,000  milf  s)  possessed  by  liiat  Territory, 

"The  climate  of  the  coast  and  the  interor  is  un- 
like in  many  respects,  and  as  the  differences  a  e  in- 
tensified in  this,  as  perhaps  in  few  other  countries,  by 
exceptiooal  physical  conditions. 

"The  natural  contrast  between  land  and  .«ea  is 
here  tr<:aicndou3ly  increased  by  the  current  of  warm 
water  that  impinges  on  the  coast  of  British  Columbia, 
one  branch  flowing  northward  tovirard  Sitka  and 
thence  westward  to  the  Kodiak  and  Shumagin  Is- 
lands. The  fringe  of  islands  that  separates  the  main 
land  from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  from  Dixon  Sound  north- 
ward and  also  a  strip  of  the  main  land  for  possibly 
twenty  miles  baeis  from  the  sea,  following  the  sweep 
of  the  coast  as  it  curves  to  the  northwestward,  to  the 
western  extremity  of  Alaska,  form  a  distinct  climatic 
division  which  n^ay  be  termed  t  »raperate  Alaska. 

"The  temperature  rarely  falls  to  zero,  Vv inter 
dots  not  set  in  until  December  i  and  by  the  last  of 
May  the  snow  ha  dissapeared,  exc^  t  on  the  moun- 
tf:ins.  Tne  mean  winter  temperature  of  Sitka  is  32.5°; 
but  little  less  than  that  of  Washington,  D.  C.  While 
Sitka  is  fully  exposed  to  the  sea  infiuences,  places 
farther  inland,  but  not  over  the  coast  range  of  moun- 
tains, as  Killisnoo  and  Juneau,  have  also  a  mild  tem- 
perature throughont  the  winter  rao.-ths. 

"The  temperature  ch'.ages  from  month  to  month 
in  temperate  Alaska  .mre  small,  not  exceeding  as"  from 


4tMHKv 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


65 


midwinter  to  midsummer.  The  average  temperature 
of  July,  the  warmest  month  of  summer,  rarely  reaches 
55°,  and  the  highest  temperature  for  a  single  day  sel- 
dom reaches  75°. 

"The  rainfall  of  temperate  Alaska  is  notorious  the 
world  over,  and  not  only  as  regards  the  quantity  but 
also  as  to  the  manner  of  its  falling — viz.:  in  long  and 
incessant  rains  and  drizzles.  Cloud  and  fog  naturally 
abound,  there  being  on  an  average  but  sixty-six  clear 
days  in  the  year. 

"Alaska  is  a  country  of  striking  contrasts,  in  cli- 
mate as  well  as  in  topography.  When  the  sun  shines 
the  atmosphere  is  remarkably  clear  and  the  scenic 
effects  are  magnificent ;  all  nature  seems  to  be  in  I  '^li- 
day  attire.  But  the  scene  may  change  very  quickly. 
The  sky  becomes  overcast,  the  winds  increase  in 
force,  rain  begins  to  fall,  the  evergreens  sigh  omin- 
ously, and  utter  desolation  and  loneliness  prevail. 

"  North  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  the  coast  climate 
becomes  more  rigorous  in  winter,  but  in  summer  the 
difference  is  much  less  marked.  Thus,  at  St.  Mich- 
ael's, a  short  distance  above  the  mouth  of  ^he  Yukon, 
the  mean  summer  temperature  is  50  degrees,  but  4 
degrees  cooler  than  Sitka.  The  mean  summer  tem- 
perature of  Point  Barrow,  the  most  northerly  point  in 
the  United  States,  is  36.8  degrees,  but  four-tenths  of 
a  degree  less  than  the  temperature  of  the  air  flowing 
across  the  summit  of  Pike's  Peak,  Colo.  Tbe  rainfall 
of  the  coast  region  north  of  the  Yukon  delti  is  small, 
diminishing  to  less  than  ten  inches  within  the  arctic 
circle. 


66 


THE  KLONDIKE, 


iX 


m 


•'The  climate  of  the  interior,  including  in  that 
designation  practically  all  of  the  country  except  a 
narrow  fringe  of  coastal  margin  and  the  territory  be- 
fore referred  to  as  temperate  Alaska,  is  one  of  extreme 
rigor  in  winter,  with  a  brief  but  relatively  hot  summer, 
especially  when  the  sky  is  free  from  clouds. 

"In  the  Klondike  region  in  midwinter  the  sun 
arises  from  9:30  to  10  a.  m.  and  sets  from  2  to  3  p.  m., 
the  total  length  of  day  being  about  four  hours.  Re- 
membering that  the  sun  rises  but  a  few  degrees  above 
the  horizon,  and  that  it  is  wholly  obscured  on  a  great 
many  days,  the  character  of  the  winter  months  may 
easily  be  imagined. 

"The  mean  summer  temperature  of  the  interior 
doubtless  ranges  between  60°  and  70°." 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  this  official  observation 
of  the  Alaska  climate  for  six  months  the  average,  or 
mean,  and  the  extreme,  of  midwinter  temperature  is 
not  given,  there  having  not  been  opportunity  for  exact 
observation.  The  degree  of  cold  sometimes  experi- 
enced is,  however,  a  matter  of  personal  experience 
with  persons  whose  statements  are  given  in  previous 
chapters.  Like  England,  Alaska  owes  that  remarka- 
ble climate  of  the  coast  to  a  warm  sea-current,  and 
this  will  in  time  to  come  donbtless  prcve  the  salvation 
of  the  country. 


Mining  at  Homk. — Perhaps  no  greater  service 
can  be  done  in  the  v^ay  of  giving  information  about 
the  new-found  mines  than  by  saying  a  word  in  regard 
to  those  intending    to    mine  while  staying   close  at 


Hi' 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA, 


67 


home.  There  are  now  organizing  hundreds  of 
"schemes."  How  many  of  these  ventures  are  rep- 
utable only  lime  can  tell,  but  it  is  very  possible  that 
the  percentage  of  them  that  are  is  small  indeed. 

In  some  of  these  new  concerns  the  fraud  is  already 
apparent,  and  when  the  time  is  ripe  from  every  quar- 
ter of  the  country  will  go  up  a  vail  of  sorrow.  In 
many  of  the  so  called  "promoting"  companies  the 
methods  of  the  discretionary  operator  are  visible, 
and  in  some  of  them  old  hands  at  bucket-shop  swin- 
dling have  been  found  working  with  feverish  activity. 

One  peculiarity  about  most  of  the  companies  is 
that  they  come  out  plainly  with  requests  for  money  to 
prospect.  The  stock  sold  is  not  on  any  specific  claim, 
but  is,  in  fact,  nothing  more  than  a  "  grub-stake,"  as 
it  is  called  in  mining  camps.  In  other  words,  the 
companies  ask  their  stock-buyers  to  put  up  the  capi- 
tal, while  the  company  sends  out  some  one  to  pro- 
spect in  the  gold  region. 

Another  outcrop  of  the  fever  is  the  man  with 
information  about  the  gold  country  to  sell.  Ten  dol- 
lars is  all  he  asks — come  early  and  avoid  the  rush. 
Another  asks  whether  you  wish  to  go  to  the  Klondike 
— send  twenty-five  cents  for  particulars. 

Another,  who  advertises  himself  as  reliable,  pleads 
for  some  one  to  put  up  the  money  for  him  to  sail  into 
the  Klondike — he  will  divide  all  he  digs  out. 

Expeditions,  also,  are  fitting  out,  and  any  one  is 
entitled  to  join  upon  the  payment  of  a  certain  sum. 
Apparently  the  most  serious  ot  all  is  one  where  the 
fixed  price  is  $  1,000,  one- half  payable  here,  the  other 


::s*ff*»i*-i&ssftrfSfe 


68 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


at  Sitka.  In  addition,  twenty- five  per  cent  of  the 
profits  from  any  claims  located  is  stipulated  in  the  con- 
tract. An  element  of  gambling  attaches  to  it,  how- 
ever, in  the  fact  that  when  claims  have  been  located 
lots  will  be  drawn  for  their  distribution. 

There  will  be  stock  companies  innumerable,  organ- 
ized ostensibly  to  exploit  the  northwest.  Possibly 
some  will  do  it.  They  will  be  directed  by  men  who 
will  set  honestly  about  the  business  of  trade  and  trans- 
portation and  mining,  who  will  handle  honestly  the 
funds  intrusted  to  them,  and  who,  by  enterprise  and 
square  dealing,  will  make  dividends  for  the  stock- 
holders. 

There  will  be  other  companies  organized  to  exploit 
the  pockets  of  the  people  at  home.  They  will  not 
move  a  boat,  they  will  not  grub-stake  a  miner,  they 
will  not  sell  a  shovel,  a  pick,  or  a  pan.  Their  direct- 
ors will  get  money  from  the  unsuspecting  and  use  it 
for  their  own  purposes.  If  the  boom  holds  out  and 
grows  to  sufficient  size  they  will  play  the  part  of  the 
adventurers  who  turned  the  city  of  Panama  into  a 
modern  Babylon  with  the  money  contributed  by  the 
people  of  PVance. 

The  person  contemplating  investment  in  the  stock 
of  an  Alaska  mining  company  cannot  be  too  cautious. 
He  will  have  little  security  against  fraud  except  in 
the  honor  and  intelligence  of  the  men  who  get  his 
money.  He  cannot  follow  them  to  Alaska  to  see  that 
they  use  it  properly. 

In  short,  sending  capital  into  the  Klondike  will  be 
even  more  precarious  than  going  yourself,  for  the 
risks  of  nature  will  be  added  to  the  risk  of  man's 
rascality. 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


69 


Further  Action  of  the  Dominion  Govern- 
ment.— Reference  to  preceding  page  49  will  show  the 
action  of  the  Canadian  Council  at  Ottawa  with  respect 
to  duties,  taxes,  royalties,  etc.,  in  the  Klondike  gold 
fields.  An  instance  of  the  rapid  action  of  modern 
times  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  already  that  de- 
cree of  the  Council  has  been  reconsidered.  On  August 
1 2th  the  project  of  compelling  miners  to  pay  from  ten 
to  twenty  per  centum  royalty  was  set  aside  because 
of  arguments  brought  against  it  by  Canadians  them- 
selves, principally  by  Mr.  Frank  Oliver,  of  Alberta, 
who  said  : 

"If  the  diggings  were  not  rich  this  tax  would  either 
be  impossible  or  it  would  prevent  mining,  and  if  they 
are  rich  it  would  only  bring  on  a  fight  in  a  region 
which,  all  things  considered,  Canada  could  not  expect 
to  rule  by  main  force  except  at  a  cost  that  would  be 
much  greater  than  the  profit." 

This  convincing  reasoning  seems  to  have  had  the 
desired  eflfect  in  persuading  the  ministry  to  abandon 
that  portion  of  the  scheme  that  imposed  the  royalties 

The  Results  of  the  "  Rush,"  as  now  Known. 
— Already  many  hundreds  have  started  and  are  far  on 
their  way  toward  the  El  Dorado  of  the  far  north. 
Warnings  were  unheeded  chiefly,  perhaps,  because  of 
the  difliculty  of  the  average  mind  in  comprehending 
the  immense  diflFerence  in  climate,  in  the  summer-time 
too,  between  all  we  know  of  what  we  call  weather  and 
the  almost  perpetual  winter  of  the  north.  Corre- 
spondents describe  many  of  these  new  Argonauts  as 


^'^'^^Ifflfe^Ki'  ^'^0^%^^  5^Ji^SS'  -^^''" 


■'^■^-^m-  «ifcs^t2^wus..  -•' 


70 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


i 

•  4 


:i 


people  who  were  never  away  from  home  before,  and 
who  are  astonished  at  the  difficulties  they  are  called 
to  face  even  before  they  have  entered  upon  the  actual 
hardships  of  the  route.  Abandoning  baggage  they 
in  some  cases  still  press  on,  moved  by  only  one 
thought — to  gei:  to  the  land  of  gold.  Some  others  are 
described  as  buying  grain-sacks  to  hold  the  gold  after 
they  have  reached  the  place.  Others,  surprised  and 
discouraged  at  the  beginning,  throw  away  or  sell  for 
one-tenth  of  its  oost  their  equipment,  and  turn  back, 
praying  only  now  for  a  possible  return  to  the  life  they 
left.  Some  of  the  details  are  given  in  a  letter  from 
the  U.  S.  Commissioner  at  Dyea  who  says  : 

"Of  the  3, GOO  miners  here  not  more  than  250  are 
provided  with  horses,  and  it  will  be  a  physical  impos- 
sibility for  the  Indian  packers  to  get  more  than  250 
outfits  over  the  trails  before  winter  sets  in.  The  In- 
dian packeis  at  Dyea  are  on  a  strike.  They  have  a 
good  thing,  but  they  want  something  better.  When 
a  steamer  anchors  in  the  bay,  a  mile  from  the  shore, 
the  stuff  is  piled  on  the  rocky  clefts  and  benches  on 
either  side  of  the  long  and  narrow  passage,  as  the 
banks  on  the  right  and  left  are  too  steep  for  the  trail. 
So  the  miners  have  to  hire  Indians  with  canoes  to  get 
their  baggage  up  to  the  sandy  beach.  This  costs  i}4 
cents  a  pound.  The  miner  then  carries  his  outfit  a 
couple  of  hundred  yards  farther  to  the  high  water- 
mark and  pitches  his  tent  for  a  rest.  He  is  soon  ready 
to  make  a  start,  but  only  goes  one  mile  when  he 
comes  to  a  river  about  three  feet  deep  and  from  50  to 
100  feet  across,  and  very  swift.     He  must  wade  and 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.        71 

take  the  chances  of  getting  his  outfit  wet,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  getting  the  cramps  himself  in  the  ice-cold 

water. 

".  .  .  .  The  packing  over  the  roads  will  not 
last  more  than  six  weeks,  and  then  nothing  can  be 
done  until  the  river  freezes  over ;  even  then  dogs  will 
not  be  used.  The  spring  excitement  will  begin  about 
February  i,  and  I  would  advise  all  to  remain  away  till 
that  time." 

Nevertheless  the  writer  adds  : 

"  Old  Yukoners  here  are  positive  there  will  be  even 
richer  diggings  discovered  next  year  than  Klondike, 
although  there  is  enough  gold  there  in  sight  and  in 
drift  to  keep  up  the  gold  output  for  a  decade." 

A  Question  of  the  Future. — By  the  time  the 
readers  will  have  seen  these  lines  the  season  during 
which  it  is  possible  to  reach  Alaska  will  have  closed. 
But  the  desire  to  go  there  will  not  have  been  appeased. 
In  the  minds  of  men,  especially  of  old  miners,  there  are 
many  intentions  to  be  realized,  or  tried,  during  the 
coming  short  summer.  Since  the  conditions  of  one 
great  find  are  known  similar  ones  will  be  carefully 
examined.  It  is  impossible  that  the  most  adventur- 
ous, tireless,  solitary  and  restless  of  men,  the  profes- 
sional miner,  will  rest  all  his  hopes  upon  the  banks  of 
a  stream  destined  soon  to  be  crowded  with  contiguous 
claims,  and  the  late-comer  crowded  out,  though  so  far 
only  thirty  miles  of  its  course  have  been  prospected. 
But  the  standing  conditions  ought  not  to  be  ignored. 
There  will  always  l)e  in  Northern  Alaska  a  want  of 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


the  means  of  living.  The  Alaskan  climate  is  all  hard, 
all  remote,  all  cold.  Some  parts  of  the  immense  terri- 
tory are  less  so  than  others.  Timber  is  one  essential 
of  a  mining  country,  transportation  is  another.  A  sys- 
tem of  easier  transportation  across  country  now  that  it 
is  in  great  demand  ;  some  plainer  and  easier  passes  than 
have  yet  been  found,  are  wanted.  To  go  to  Alaska 
fully  supplied  for  at  least  one  year's  stay  is  one  thing  ; 
to  go  rashly  unprepared  and  trusting  to  luck,  and  to 
hasten  blindly  to  the  Klondike,  is  quite  another. 

Much  might  be  added  here  about  the  danger  of 
making  mistakes  in  going  to  the  Alaska  and  British 
American  gold  region.  It  might  be  pointed  out  that 
new  diggings  have  been  found  in  California,  and  that 
Colorado  is  producing  now  about  twenty  millions  in 
gold  for  every  twelve  months,  and  that  if  a  man  wants 
to  mine  he  need  not  migrate  to  the  region  of  the 
north. 

These  facts  and  arguments  are  always  lost.  The 
alluring  elements  of  adventure  and  chance  enter. 
There  is  without  question  an  immense  gold  field  in  the 
north,  and  on  American  soil.  If  at  his  leisure  a 
young  and  strong  man  goes  there  in  the  face  of  the 
idleness  and  distress  that  until  recently  have  been  the 
conditions  in  this  country  ;  if  when  he  reaches  there 
lie  goes  to  work  and  keeps  at  work  with  the  idea  of 
persistence  rather  than  of  gambling  and  chance,  he 
may  have  success,  and  it  may  prove  the  opportunity 
of  his  life.  Good  health  and  comparative  youth,  a 
determination  to  simply  embrace  a  great  opportunity 
and  win  without  the  aid  of  mere  chance,  a  determina- 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


73 


tion  to  use  the  best  of  such  opportunities  that  oflFers, 
and  regard  that  as  destiny  rather  than  one  which  may 
prove  better,  a  cool  head  and  persistent  work,  will 
make  at  least  a  few  rich  in  the  end  who  would  inevit- 
ably fail  with  the  usual  idea. 

The  Route  by  the  Chilkoot  Pass. — A  personal 
experience,  as  related  by  Dr.  E.  O.  Crewe  at  Tatter- 
sail's,  Chicago,  August  15,  is  interesting  in  connec- 
tion with  the  question  prominent  in  many  minds: 
"  How  shall  I  go,  'overland'  or  by  the  sea  and  up 
the  Yukon?"  The  stories  of  hardships  suflFered  by 
travelers  over  the  Chilkoot  Pass,  as  printed  recently 
in  the  newspapers,  he  said  were  exaggerations.  He 
had  made  the  trip  on  three  occasions,  and  described 
in  detail  its  various  stages.  Some  of  the  details  of 
this  overland  journey  are  as  follows  : 

There  is  a  chain  of  lakes,  Bennett,  Taku  and 
Marsh.  There  is  a  way  of  following  certain  shores 
and  of  avoiding  certain  sharp  rocks  and  other  difficul- 
ties, and  these  are  details  of  local  knowledge  to  be 
acquired  when  one  has  reached  the  place.  There  is  a 
way  of  building  rafts  and  procuring  boats,  and  there 
are  portages  around  rapids.  All  these  things  are  the 
usual  incidents  of  travel,  and  there  is  no  difficulty 
that  is  at  all  insurmountable.  At  the  proper  season, 
the  fall,  there  is  game ;  but  it  is  necessary  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  food-supplies  must  under  all  circum- 
stances be  carefully  looked  after  as  the  chiefest 
necessities. 

The  steamers  carry  passengers  to  a  point  six  miles 
north  of  Dyea,  and  following  this  there  is  an  over- 


74 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


•  'I 

A 

'I 
'i 

ill 


land  trip  of  twenty-eight  miles.  This  requires  three 
days,  and  there  is  one  hard  day.  The  first  day, 
to  Sheep  Camp,  is  a  pleasant  walk.  The  next  two 
bring  the  traveler  to  Stone  House,  and  here  begins 
the  pass.  There  it  is  necessary  to  get  up  early  in  the 
morning  to  get  an  early  start,  and  that  night  one  may 
camp  three  or  four  miles  beyond  the  pass.  A  s.  jng 
man  may  cross  the  pass  itself  with  one  hundred 
pounds  on  his  back  in  three  hours.  Sometimes  it  is 
like  climbing  the  roof  of  a  house.  Sometimes  it  is  in 
snow  and  slush  up  to  the  knees.  But  there  is  no  danger 
and  no  great  difficulty.  You  cannot  lose  your  way. 
There  is  a  wall  of  rock  on  one  side  and  a  wall  of  ice 
on  the  other — no  chasms  to  fall  into,  no  crevices  in 
the  ice.  It  is  not  as  hard  as  climbing  half  way  up 
Pike's  Peak,  a  trick  that  hundreds  of  tourists  do  every 
year  for  pleasure.  And  that  is  all  there  is  to  the  hor- 
rors of  Chilkoot  Pass. 

The  cost  of  living  in  the  Yukon  region,  Dr.  Crewe 
said,  had  been  greatly  exaggerated,  and  he  told  how 
every  spring  oranges  could  be  bought  for  fifty  cents  a 
dozen  at  Dawson,  fresh  onions  and  potatoes  for  fifteen 
cents  a  pound,  and  flour  and  other  provisions  much 
cheaper  than  they  can  be  packed  in.  He  advised  any 
intending  to  go  to  wait  until  late  next  March,  then 
take  the  Chilkoot  Pass  route,  when  they  can  haul  500 
pounds  over  the  pass  on  a  sledge,  when  the  snow  is 
frozen  at  night,  easier  than  they  can  pack  fifty  pounds 
over  at  this  season.  Next  season,  it  is  not  improba- 
ble there  may  be  a  hundred  boats  on  the  Yukon  where 
now  are   but  twenty,   and  at  St.   Michael's  Island, 


THE  .\EW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA. 


75 


eighty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon,  he  said 
there  is  now  enough  food  supply  to  last  10,000  men 
five  years. 

"  Manv  men  will  come  back  disheartened,"  said 
he,  "but  it  will  be  because  they  are  too  easily  dis- 
couraged, have  too  little  pluck,  or  are  unwilling  to 
work.  Alaska  is  the  poor  man's  mining  country.  It 
is  every  man  for  himself,  and  thousands  of  men  who 
have  nothing  will  go  there  and  in  a  year,  by  proper 
diligence,  wash  out  $2,000  to  $10,000,  and  many  of 
thera  a  great  deal  more,  above  all  their  expenses." 

Scientific  Mining  in  Alaska. — Many  people 
who  know  something  of  mining  have  suspected  that 
the  work  of  scientific  mining  had  not  yet  begun  in 
Alaska,  and  that  it  had  a  splendid  future.  Theory, 
at  least,  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  by  whatever 
process  the  gold  was  placed  in  the  Alaska  placers, 
much  of  it  must  have  got  into  the  beds  —  not  the 
banks  —  of  the  streams,  and  lies  there.  Companies 
following  this  idea  are  now  forming  for  the  purpose  of 
dredging  for  gold  in  the  deeper  waters,  and  in  the 
Yukon  itself.  It  is  believed  that  the  wealth  of  the 
banks  is  comparatively  trivial  as  compared  to  the  bed 
of  the  river.  This  gold  is  mostly  dust,  and  investi- 
gations conducted  by  the  assayer  tend  to  prove  that 
it  has  been  gradually  washed  to  the  center  of  the 
rivers,  where  it  is  now  imbedded  in  greater  quantities 
than  ever  before  discovered. 


,.^4  -*ffiWH,  -<<fc';7/^.; 


76 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


I 


Two  New  American  Beasts  of  Burden. — One 
is  the  dog  and  the  other  the  reindeer.  Both  have 
been  alluded  to  in  connection  with  travel  and  trans- 
portation in  previous  chapters.  Three  months  ago  it 
had  perhaps  never  occurred  to  the  average  American 
that  the  dog  would  ever  be  to  him  a  necessity,  such 
as  the  horse  is,  or  be  used  for  the  same  purposes.  II 
he  goes  to  Alaska  it  is  likely  this  situation  will  be 
changed,  and  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  change  will 
be  that  the  intense  cold  spits  the  hoofs  of  horses,  and 
the  dog  must  take  their  place  as  a  draught  animal. 

But  the  Alaskan  dog  is  not  a  fair  representative 
of  the  dog  tribe.  A  physical  description  is  that  he 
looks  almost  like  the  gray  wolf;  a  little  smaller  and 
a  little  hairier.  Mentally,  so  to  speak,  he  is  a  vicious 
brute,  without  the  natural  affection  of  the  usual  dog 
for  man,  snapping  and  biting  upon  all  occasions,  and 
incapable  of  responding  to  caresses  even  if  he  got 
them — which  he  never  does.  In  cases  of  extreme 
hunger  his  own  master  is  not  safe.  His  usefulness 
is,  however,  unquestioned,  for  his  endurance  har- 
nessed to  a  sledge  is  wonderful.  These  draught-dogs 
are  used  in  teams  of  from  four  to  twelve,  and  in  an 
emergency  only  one  may  be  used,  the  man  pushing 
and  the  dog  pulling.  He  is  almost  unaflFected  by  the 
very  great  cold,  sleeping  in  the  snow  and  eating  a 
scanty  ration  of  dried  salmon. 

The  reindeer  of  the  domesticated  species  is  not  a 
native  of  Alaska,  the  American  reindeer,  so-called, 
being  the  Barren  Ground  and  Woodland  Caribou. 
The  need  of  the  domesticated  species  for  the  Indians 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA 


if 


in  Alaska  was  seen  some  years  ago,  and  from  those 
imported  at  that  time  considerable  numbers  have 
sprung.  The  advantages  of  the  enterprise  were 
pointed  out  in  a  preceding  chapter. 

The  reindeer  is  singular  in  the  fact  that  both  males 
and  females  have  horns— the  only  instance  of  the 
kind  in  the  deer  species.  It  is  exclusively  a  northern 
animal,  and  one  whose  value  it  would  be  difficult  to 
overestimate,  since  it  serves  as  horse,  cow  and  sheep, 
all  in  one.  Weighing  full  grown  not  more  than 
four  hundred  to  six  hundred  pounds,  it  can  draw 
three  hundred  pounds  on  a  sledge,  and  its  hoofs,  as 
large  as  those  of  a  cow,  and  opening  widely,  make  it 
especially  a  snow  animal.  It  lives  by  browsing  on 
stunted  shrubs  in  summer,  and  on  moss  in  winter, 
and  the  latter  it  can  paw  away  several  feet  of  snow  lo 
reach.  Moss  is  one  of  the  characteristic  growths  of 
Alaska.  A  hundred  miles  over  frozen  snow  is  not  an 
unusual  day's  journey  for  the  European  reindeer. 

The;  Alaska  Savages. —  As  to  these  people, 
usually,  if  the  way  taken  is  either  by  way  of  Juneau 
and  the  Chilkoot  Pass  or  the  Mackenzie  river,  they 
are  the  first  people  seen.  At  some  remote  period  now 
absolutely  forgotten  they  came  from  Asia.  The  north- 
west coast  Indians  are  so  like  the  people  known  as 
Eskimo  that,  though  not  known  by  that  name,  there 
is  no  essential  difference.  Of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Aleutian  islands  the  same  may  be  said.  The  Eskimo, 
strictly  speaking,  live  in  the  northern  and  north- 
western    portions    of    the     country,     the      Indians 


'^m^ 


<-«*»-, 


il 


78 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


thus  designated  being  off-i>hoots  or  kindred,  and, 
as  s  Jited,  very  like  the  Eskimo.  In  many  respects 
these  people  aic  peculiar.  They  live  exclusively 
upon  fish  and  sea  animals.  They  have  no  chiefs. 
In  mental  ability  they  Stand  high  among  savages. 
They  have  never  been  known  to  go  to  war  among 
themselv«'«,  though  they  have  always  been  at  enmity 
with  the  southern  tribes,  and  in  self-defense  are 
dreaded  fighters.  There  is  no  fear  of  treachery  or 
massacre  by  them.  They  will  work,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  they  understand  quite  well  how  to  charge 
for  it  in  proportion  to  the  emergency.  In  the  making 
of  weapons  and  tools  of  the  chase,  and  in  the  shaping 
and  finish  of  their  garments,  the  entire  Eskimo  kin- 
dred have  alwayi^  been  remarkably  skillful.  They 
are  equally  so  in  the  work  required  of  them  by  the 
white  tne::  vvno  hire  them,  and  in  many  respects  they 
stand  iii  stri^-.ing  contrast  to  the  usual  Indian  as  we 
know  him,  "  Blubber  eaters  "  is  not  strictlj-  a  good 
name  lor  them,  for  blubber  is  too  precious  a  commod- 
ity to  eac.  They  are  more  properly  fish  eaters. 
Those  Indians  with  Avhom  the  voyager  to  Alaska  is 
likely  to  come  in  contact  know  white  people  very 
well,  are  not  untrustworthy,  and  as  laborers  and 
guides  will  be  found  quite  indispensable.  In  the 
valley  of  the  Yukon,  and  north  of  it,  they  are  said 
to  be  slowly  lessening  in  number. 


I 


Routes  to  Alaska  from  PoinTvS  within  the 
United  States. — The  vast  majority  of  all  who  turn 
their  steps  toward  the  Alaska  gold  region  in  the  early 


THE  NEW  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  ALASKA.         70 

spring  must  start  from  the  interior  of  the  C\>untry,  and 
many  must  travel  far  before  they  reach  even  the  be- 
ginning of  any  of  the  routes  by  land  and  sea  described 
in  preceding  chapters. 

Among  these  must  be  included  all  who  live  in  the 
vast  territory  lying  southwest  of  Chicago  in  Illinois, 
in  north  Missouri,  in  all  of  Kansas,  in  central  Texas 
from  Galveston  north,  in  Oklahoma,  in  southern  Col- 
orado and  all  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  and  thence 
westward  and  northwestward  up  to  San  Francisco. 

The  main  artery  of  all  this  region  is  the  most  splen- 
did railroad  system  in  the  world,  and  the  most  far-reach- 
ing and  stupendous,  covering  with  its  main  lines  and 
branches  more  than  nine  thousand  miles  in  distance,  and 
almost  all  of  the  vast  region  mentioned  in  area.  When 
in  western  Kansas  it  converges  into  a  single  trunk  line 
it  becomes  the  greatest  of  the  trans-continental  roads, 
landing  in  San  Francisco  without  change  the  passen- 
gers who  have  started  from  Chicago,  and  even  those 
who  started  from  Boston  with  but  one,  and  that  sii  gle 
one  but  a  transfer  from  one  car  to  another  in  Chicago. 
This  great  railroad  system  is  known  to  thousands 
by  its  briefest  name  ;  The  Santa  Fe  Route. 

The  journey  to  Alaska  may  be  made  by  way  of 
San  Francisco,  the  great  seaport  of  the  western  coast, 
whether  the  passenger  goes  by  way  of  the  ocean  and 
the  Yukon,  or  to  Juneau  and  Dyei*  and  through  the 
Chilkoot  Pass.  All  who  now  live  in  the  district  men- 
tioned, and  who  wish  to  travel  toward  the  Alaska  gold 
fields,  are  natural  travelers  by  way  of  The  Santa  Fe 
Route  westward,  and  thence  northward  either  by  the 


,!if?^^-j-iapwn>i  mmamA 


80 


THE  KLONDIKE. 


northern  steamers  that  leave  San  Francisco,  or  by  rail 
to  Seattle,  and  thence  to  Alaska  by  any  route. 

Another  route  is  via  the  Santa  Fe'  Route  to 
Pueblo  and  Denver,  and  thence  by  the  Rio  Grande 
Western  to  Ogden,  and  thence  via  Oregon  Short  Line 
to  connection  with  Puget  Sound  steamers. 

Still  another  is  the  Santa  Fe  Route  via  Sacra- 
mento to  Portland,  and  thence  by  steamer  to  Alaska. 

So  convenient  is  this  great  line  as  a  route  to  the 
Pacific  coast  from  all  the  territory  named,  that  it  can  in 
truth  be  avoided  only  by  trying.  It  is,  in  addition,  a 
central  route  whereon  the  snow-blockades  and  long  de- 
lays of  winter  and  early  spring  are  unknown,  and  its 
Tourist  Sleeping  Cars,  long  a  feature  of  its  equipment, 
and  in  which  second-class  tickets  are  honored  as  well 
as  first,  offers  every  comfort  to  the  economical  trav- 
ler.  The  nearest  agent  of  the  line  will  be  found  able 
to  add  all  needed  particulars. 


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